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The Decware TABOO MK 111 Thread
Apr 16, 2013 at 4:36 PM Post #302 of 2,112
Tabooed and Lucidized in Anchorage…
 
My Taboo landed at the UPS store yesterday at lunch time.  I promptly took the afternoon off. 
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Once I got through the 30 feet of bubble wrap and the plastic prophylactic I was hit with the smell of newly-finished wood.  It brought back pleasant memories of my Dad’s work shop.  I chose the walnut base for its classic Decware look and even though it’s not my favorite wood I find the black top plate and the deep finish on the base to be quite striking.  While I’ve admired Decware’s amps since I got into Head-Fi in 2007 I have not cared for the white top plates – they remind me too much of educational electronics kits.  Now I am just as pleased with the Taboo’s classic aesthetics as my Woo WA7’s (in black, mind you) contemporary aesthetics.
 
I plugged in all the stock tubes (Valve Art 274B, Russian 6N1P, and Russian 6P15P-EV), ran some ICs to my line router, plugged in my AKG 702, and fired it up.  The tubes glowed happily and the bias meters leveled out just shy of 30 milliamps.  I queued up Open Your Ears from the Head-Fi label and took it for a spin.  Sounded good but something was weird.  OK, it just came out of the box so I held up on any opinions.  Flipping lucid switches just created too much to think about so I made sure they were off.  I moved on to Dr. Chesky’s Sensational…Binaural Sound Show.  I listened to a couple music tracks and they just didn’t sound right.  Started track 20 “Right Channel ID Test” -- interestingly, Dr. Chesky was whispering into my right eyeball instead of my ear.  Started flipping lucid switches and voilà, with Original Lucid Mode “On” Dr. Chesky was back to whispering sweet nothings in my right ear.  So, once I figured out the Original Lucid Mode switch was backward while the New Lucid Mode switch was as shown in the manual everything started coming together.  I was able to listen to some more music when my journey was cut short by my wife volunteering me to help some friends with a house project.  Darn...
 
At least my Taboo is not going away and I have a fun journey ahead including an LCD-3 and some tube rolling.  I’m really looking forward to everyone else’s experiences and impressions.  As getting to a Head-Fi meet is nearly impossible I rely on learning by listening to my gear in comparison to what I read from other people.  So, get out there and get Tabooed and Lucidized!  …and come back here and write about it...
 
Thanks!
 
Apr 16, 2013 at 4:44 PM Post #303 of 2,112
Apr 16, 2013 at 4:45 PM Post #304 of 2,112
New CSP2+/Taboo MK III setup....
 
 

 
Apr 16, 2013 at 4:56 PM Post #305 of 2,112
Looks great, Eric.
 
Apr 16, 2013 at 5:02 PM Post #306 of 2,112
V-Duh, great write-up. Had to laugh, as I think my Taboo II's Left/Right channel inputs got wired in - shall I say a mirror universe??? (Kind of amusing, as I'm one of these people who can't tell left from right anyway).

Anyways guys, stop tempting me to order one of these things - grrr!
 
Apr 16, 2013 at 5:14 PM Post #308 of 2,112
Great Frank - looking forward to this
 
Apr 16, 2013 at 5:16 PM Post #309 of 2,112
Quote:
argo duck said:
V-Duh, great write-up. Had to laugh, as I think my Taboo II's Left/Right channel inputs got wired in - shall I say a mirror universe??? (Kind of amusing, as I'm one of these people who can't tell left from right anyway).

Anyways guys, stop tempting me to order one of these things - grrr!
Click to expand...

 
If that's the case you should get it fixed by them at some point, even if for the resale value.
 
Apr 16, 2013 at 5:41 PM Post #310 of 2,112
Quote:
frank i said:
My review is done and just being proof read so it wont be long before its up. I did a very detailed review so I look forward to your impressions as well.
Click to expand...

I am ready for a great read, Frank!
 
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Apr 16, 2013 at 5:43 PM Post #311 of 2,112
For sure, I would absolutely do that as the unit would need to go back to Decware anyway before a new life-time warranty could be issued to the buyer.

Reason I didn't get it fixed is (a) it's a long, expensive (say $250) trip from New Zealand to USA and back again; (b) it's real easy to cross the I/C to 'fix' the problem. TBH, at first I wasn't sure which amp was wired wrong anyway - I only knew it and my main SS amp differed.

It's unlikely I'll ever sell the II in any case. For a tube amp the only upgrade I can envisage is the T-III or an ECBA, and put the II into service elsewhere...
 
Apr 17, 2013 at 1:48 PM Post #314 of 2,112
The review is being sent to Decware for a fact check and then it will be posted on Dagogo.com when is available I will be the first to post the link here and I thank you for your patience. it is a little different than posting here.
 
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