Review Decware Taboo. An Amazing Achievment - Page 8

has anyone compared a decware taboo and a schiit lyr?

@shaunybaby - still burning in my Taboo. Will post brief comparative impressions in a week or so. My impression without direct A/B is Taboo has the same slam and depth in the bass as Lyr, but presents it much more smoothly and naturally. By this, I mean much more in balance with the mids and treble. As well, Taboo has amazing sub-bass control.

@ ninjikiran - You posted this question many months ago and I'm aware you moved from Concerto to Lyr, still I will post some brief impressions soon. One observation; at first I found the Concerto's handling of attack - always a highlight - better than Taboo's. By about day 4 (30 hours) it had become a dead-heat. (Note: SPLs matched to 80dBA pink noise).

That aside, my impression is - purely from informal listening hence subject to qualification or contradiction - I have never before heard an amp with the all-round quality (should I say qualities?) of the Taboo.

(Other gear: DACs mostly Meier StageDAC; some time with Schiit Bifrost. Phones mostly LCD2 rev 1).

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Originally Posted by ninjikiran 

anyone who owned a concerto can do a comparison?

Quote:

Originally Posted by shaunybaby 

has anyone compared a decware taboo and a schiit lyr?

Quote:

Originally Posted by AiDee 

@shaunybaby - still burning in my Taboo. Will post brief comparative impressions in a week or so. My impression without direct A/B is Taboo has the same slam and depth in the bass as Lyr, but presents it much more smoothly and naturally. By this, I mean much more in balance with the mids and treble. As well, Taboo has amazing sub-bass control.

thanks for getting back to me so quickly I'm looking forward to hearing your impressions :)

I look forward to your impressions as well.  My Taboo and CSP2+ should be benching within a week or so.   

How are you burning it on?  More or less 5 on 5 off with music running or another way? 

I had a Lyr on loan for a week. In short, the Lyr sounded good, great dynamic and punch impact, but the Taboo was more refined all around. Lyr had stock tubes, I've been using Sophia 274b, Sylvania EL84's, and GE 5751 TMBP's on the Taboo.

I'm looking forward to the CSP2+ as my next amp. It was either that or the Stratus, but can't afford that right now. :( 

I find the Taboo alone didn't have enough gain to play with my vinyl setup, so I'm hoping the CSP2+ will solve that problem. 

Yes - figured I could do no better than take the designer's advice and followed the 5 hr hot/cold cycle closely for the first week.

Used music from my iTunes library - most of it ALAC. Have various kinds of noise (pink etc) available but prefer to use the same stuff I listen to.

I have no particular views about burn-in either way, but certainly noticed large changes in the first few days. As well, I got the VCAP option - these take a long time to run in I understand.

Mine was shipped with the 12AU7 driver tube - probably because I mentioned having a 3V rms DAC (the Eastern Electric MiniMax) - but this is not the DAC I'm using. However, as noted earlier in this thread, this tube gives tons of power for LCD2. Less so for inefficient desktop speakers, but atm I only intend desktops for quiet background listening anyway.

Tried the Taboo first day I got it with my main speakers - 90dB/1W multi-array units. Not surprisingly they didn't show great dynamics with the 12AU7 but sounded quite listenable!

Have a NOS Brimar 12AT7 on the way so may repeat this experiment.

@Semiaudiophile look forward to your impressions once the CSP2+ is on board and bedded in. Hope it meets your vinyl needs. It is likely I either go CSP2+ or - like PaleRider (IIRC) - the ZStage sometime in the next few months.

What you say about refinement echoes my first major impression - about day 4 I think. I felt the Taboo didn't do any one thing particularly well. Instead it did everything some significantly audible amount better - say 10% to put a figure on it - making it a "complete" amp.

Then I had to eat my words...in the next 24 hours I noticed things I'd never heard before with any of my (headphone) amps. Of course, this merely reflects the amps I've heard. Nevertheless, I'm amazed by the degree of apparent difference.
 

Just sprang for a Taboo to mate my LCD-2s!

The wait begins :¬(

(but I must admit that with my current schedule, the wait period will probably zoom past without me noticing it)

Having just spoken with them, for me I've been really restrained -- patience is not one of my stronger points, I'm still about 3 weeks out.  That will make it about 12 weeks start to arrival.   Which they indicated is their current and climbing time frame.   

That's the honest truth.  I saw one, as CSP2 I believe, on the Decware for sale forum, had a stack of people interested, and he withdrew it 48 hours later.  Apparently he passed over around 400 hours and it suddenly bloomed.  His set up was really high end, and his quibbles small compared to something more expensive.  

Based on where I am in the overall amp queue, my estimate would be they build about 7, maybe 8 amps a week.  Not of each type -- all told.  I'm sure once I've had it for several months and it's settled in I'll consider the wait more than worth it.  

So Frank you're the reason he only builds 7-8 amps a week 

Seriously though, I agree with your estimate Nyvar - I thought about 9 but wasn't allowing for holidays.

My Taboo - 3-4 weeks on - keeps getting better and better. I've had so many projects to finish and start I had to slow down the listening - hence less than 130 hours ATM.

I haven't yet compared with the Lyr. But it is more and more clear it is an outstanding amp: neutral yet magical in the mids, very revealing of harmonic textures and layers, amazing low-end 'grunt' with the LCD2 when needed, initial "slowness" with attack has completely corrected. It has been changing from being "merely impressive; glad I bought it" (most of the time) to many "OMG!" moments - not in a hi-fi-ish way but in some sort of subtle extra 'insight' and engagingness it seems to have. 

Has also been driving a pair of (must be inefficient) M-Audio satellites with ease at the soft levels I listen to in my office - with rather surprising bass quantity and quality, and doing a remarkably convincing job with symphonies at these levels!
 

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Originally Posted by Frank I 

I think its more than that. In any event they are very nice products and I have been happy with both the company and always talk to Steve when I get a chance or I get him is better word LOL
 

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by AiDee 

 

I haven't yet compared with the Lyr. But it is more and more clear it is an outstanding amp: neutral yet magical in the mids, very revealing of harmonic textures and layers, amazing low-end 'grunt' with the LCD2 when needed, initial "slowness" with attack has completely corrected. It has been changing from being "merely impressive; glad I bought it" (most of the time) to many "OMG!" moments - not in a hi-fi-ish way but in some sort of subtle extra 'insight' and engagingness it seems to have. 

 

I agree with you there, there are definitely some wow moments with certain recordings. Especially when listening with speakers, the realism in the voice, soundstage,  and the big/powerful sound I get even out of bookshelves is quite amazing.

I'm even considering adding either zstage or zbox to my system. Seems to get great reviews also: http://www.decware.com/cgi-bin/yabb22/YaBB.pl?num=1288548883

zstage appears to be a best of both worlds being a tube buffer/gain/preamp, I'm thinking maybe I should get that and be done with it.

What are your thoughts on the zstage Pale Rider?

It may well be, I was just going by I'm 2nd for CSP2, next for Taboo, and all told there are 24 amps in front of me, and as of this afternoon, and estimate of 3 more weeks.   She indicated 10 - 12+ is about what they're running right now.  

So far, nothing I've read anywhere, in any context, has pretty much just confirmed I've made the right choice for me.   May well be middle of March before I get regular OMG! moments, but I'm confident I'll get my fair share.