[jhljhl]

I've now switched to a fat bottle gz37.  Increased warmer midrange already there with mullard el84.  With a mytek as also dac/pre-amp I actually think this combo rivals WA22 in musicality.

 

[jhljhl]

   
If you can hunt down a Reflektor Holy Grail '75 6N23P SWGP Silver Shields, I suggest you give it a try. It is a step up from the pinched waist 6922. Running the same set-up you have except for the Silver Shields in the input. I will also suggest that you replace the stock fuse of the MKIII to a Audio Horizons Platinum Reference fuse and I assure you that you will be smiling from ear to ear. 

I replaced the fuse with a hifi supreme.  It is an immediately noticeable upgrade.  Bass hits harder, imaging is cleared up, faster decay.  

 

[Muziqboy]

I used to have the HiFi Tuning Supreme in my MKIII until I discovered the AudioHorizons Platinum Reference fuse which improved the sound even more by leaps and bounds.

It is not cheap though @ $117.00 a pop.

 

[jhljhl]

I used to have the HiFi Tuning Supreme in my MKIII until I discovered the AudioHorizons Platinum Reference fuse which improved the sound even more by leaps and bounds.

It is not cheap though @ $117.00 a pop.

I've one in another amp but I'll try it out one day thanks.

 

[Brucemck2]

What size and rating do you purchase for that fuse?

 

[Muziqboy]

  What size and rating do you purchase for that fuse?

It's a 3.15amp 20mm size fuse.

 

[Brucemck2]

  It's a 3.15amp 20mm size fuse.

Slow blow or fast blow?

 

[Muziqboy]

You can use either one. I have a slow blow on mine.

 

[svmusa]

My current headphones are Beyer DT150, Senn HD380, Feenix Aria/telefunken audion. I have JVC DX1000 on the way and some point planning to go for Planar as well.
 
Looking to venture into vacuum tube amps and hoping this could be my end game amp for a while, looking for thoughts and experiences on following order upgrade options. 
 
1> Teflon Vcaps ($200) vs Cryo treated beeswax
 
2> High & Low gains ($200)
 
3> UFO Widebandwith $160
 
Also hoping the amp is capable of providing details and is dynamic rather than the typical tube warm lush sound. I will sure have to invest in some NOS tubes I suppose..

 

[Argo Duck]

Can't answer most of these questions. Suggest you consider the CSP3 as well.

Decware amps do not have the "typical tube warm lush sound". Rather, they can have pretty much any sound you want them to have. In fact, I understand warm and lush are not 'typical' of tube amps in general these days. It's more about what tubes you choose.

Decwares are very responsive to tube-rolling.

 

[nprathap]

   
I did in fact design the Taboo MK III for the LCD2 and LCD3 headphones.  These hard to drive planar headphones deserved a purpose built amplifier because of both their fidelity and popularity.  
 
We already make a great OTL headphone amplifier/preamp that is ideal for use with regular headphones. (CSP3) And there was no LCDX at that time.
 
In my writing about the Taboo MK III and new lucid mode, I made it pretty clear that the effect is tied to impedance.  The LCD's were in the 50-70 ohm range where new lucid mode was carefully voiced.  On speakers or other headphones the new lucid mode would be exaggerated or reduced from that ideal.
 
That said, many people use the Taboo MK III on a variety of different headphones and I’m fine with that so long as the above is understood regarding the new lucid mode.
 
I will be adding a custom option to the shopping cart for the Taboo MK III that will allow the buyer to select from standard gain and low gain.  Low gain being for more efficient non-targeted headphones.  If 4 pin jacks are selected we could make one high output and one low output as well.
 
This could technically be done externally if the right resistors were used.
Mouser # 71-CW005150R0JE73 which is a 150 ohm exactly matches what’s on the inside.  You could go as high a 1K with some phones or IEMs.
 
As for hum on one channel only:
 
Since the internal layout is not perfectly symmetrical, the noise floor is going to be louder on one side over the other.  This is true of most audio gear, once you magnify the noise floor.  Even if both sides were exactly the same layout, differences in tubes would be heard, so the real issue is hearing the noise floor at all.  With 1700 Miliwatts of output, anyone hearing hum has more than enough volume left on the dial to hurt themselves.  That means that for headphones that you hear hum with, there is too much gain or power.  Reducing it will give you more usable range on the volume control and reduce the hum by an equal amount.
 
 
 
Hope this helps!
 
Steve Deckert

I have the Zen MKIII Taboo with the high and low gain option.  I am not sure how can I change the gain, I wanted to use the Taboo to drive HD 800 / HD 800 S. But worried about the power as Sennhizer recommends max mover to be 500 mw at 300 Ohm where as Taboo - 1700 mw at 300 ohm.  Is the volume knob works as the gain controller as well on Taboo? 


 

 

[jhljhl]

The HEK through the MKIII is airy but nice warm midrange.  Curiously, however even with 1700mw I'm at the very high end of the volume knob for the single ended-
I assume like the lcd3f there'll be a little more of what seems like control and powering through the balanced input.

 

[stoutblock]

I finally got my Decware headphone setup complete. 
 
FLAC > Neutral cable USB (blue) > Audio-gd Master 7 (USB32) > Avanti Allegro > Decware CSP3 (3) Mullard CV2493 (1) RCA 5Y3GT > Decware Taboo III (1) Mullard CV2493 (2) 6P15P-EV (1) Mullard GZ34 "DD" > Aphrodite Zeus Quad21 OCC Series 7 > Audeze LCD 2.2
 
Sounds pretty darn good!

 

[Muziqboy]

  I finally got my Decware headphone setup complete. 
 
FLAC > Neutral cable USB (blue) > Audio-gd Master 7 (USB32) > Avanti Allegro > Decware CSP3 (3) Mullard CV2493 (1) RCA 5Y3GT > Decware Taboo III (1) Mullard CV2493 (2) 6P15P-EV (1) Mullard GZ34 "DD" > Aphrodite Zeus Quad21 OCC Series 7 > Audeze LCD 2.2
 
Sounds pretty darn good!

 
That's great and congratulations!
Now for an even bigger step up in the sound quality of your system, I will suggest that you change the fuses in your CSP3 and Taboo MKIII to Audio Horizon Platinum Reference fuses and install a WA QUANTUM fuse chip in each of the fuse. My jaw just dropped after doing this and can not believe the increase in the resolution of the sound.

 

[Muziqboy]

I also changed all my rca interconnects to Decware Silver Reference and got another boost in the SQ department.