I always wonder how you guys hold it vithout a shoulder-rest . I tried but i have to rise my shoulder and hold my head very low.. i even tried to compensate it with applying adjustments to the chin-rest - not working though i don't have a long neck. Always look at you and amaze... look and amaze again =)

I was never able to abandon the shoulder rest until I had a better chin rest which I custom made but then found a commercial model that also worked.

To find the right chin rest I came up with a test.  I first established that my chin rest was comfortable, right height, level violin, etc.  I called this initial position the "ideal" position.  But then the next step was to play 10 or 20 bars and notice where I wound up and how much I may have deviated from the "ideal" position.  I called that the "playing" position.  If the ideal position and playing position were much different than I would "lose" the violin along the way.

I also made note that different chin rests want to point the violin in different directions.  I wound up playing much more scroll left than before.  And I avoided dropping the scroll (maybe 1") total.  I had a bad habit to lower the scroll to see the music stand. 

Something has to go between the chin and the instrument but a lot of different schemes have been used, historically.  I found that ideal vs. playing position was more a major concern. 

So, about shoulder rests.  They were made because chin rests didn't work well ( for music by Paganini ).  I did use a shoulder rest for years but I just did not like them. I was annoyed that they raised the violin and I was playing "uphill".  I made the transition literally overnight once I had the right chin rest.

However, I never argue with success.