mwindham08
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Testing and Quality Control...not too much longer!
The Decware TABOO MK 111 Thread
- Thread starter Frank I
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Landmantx
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I love the new Lucid Mode. It is a big time soundstage expander, especially on the HD800s though. The best I can explain it is like listening to a "hall" mode on a digital DSP. It doesn't work with everything, but it makes some music sound so much more "live" and sounds much more like a set of speakers vs. headphones. The old Lucid mode is very subtle and is not a huge difference. I always prefer it on it seems. I really don't like the "in the head" feel of headphones that much, so I appreciate the added options to kind of expand the room. It is kind of like original Lucid is a 12X15 living room and new lucid mode is a 75X150 performance hall to my humble ears. Either way options are great and you lose nothing in sound quality to my ears.
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What would you guys think about me trying to use my Asgard 2 as the pre-amp for my Taboo MKIII. Does that defeat he purpose of having a tube amp? Also, do you think my Bifrost will be a bottleneck/problem for the Taboo?
Nick Dangerous
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Depends upon the headphones but I find the Bifrost too limiting with the HD800. Concero is the cheapest DAC I've found which does it justice.
Argo Duck
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I agree with Nick. Whereas I found the bifrost close overall to stagedac and eastern electric dacs with Meier concerto, vioolectric v100 or lyr as the amps, it fell behind when taboo entered the frame, sounding muddy and distant with harmonically complex material (e.g. Piano with dense chord structures). Either this was synergy, or taboo has much greater resolution and transparency. Either way...
Otoh, I've ordered the new 'uber' output board upgrade for the bifrost. It's based on the gungnir's output stage. Could be interesting.
There's some interesting stuff by @will on the decware forums about 'riding the gain'. I don't fully understand, but I think it's to do with fine tuning how much the pre- and power- amps contribute relatively of their individual signature to the final sound. I don't think it matters whether the pre is tube, SS or unknown alien technology! It's more to do with the gain controls of e.g. the csp2 I think. Btw, the latter and the zstage will uses have a lot of voltage range, easily more than the 3-4V the taboo II likes to see.
According to Steve Deckert a point of difference of taboo iii is he raised the gain so a preamp isn't needed - and Frank found as much in his review. See Steve's thread on decware where he first announced the new amp for that and other interesting stuff.
Otoh, I've ordered the new 'uber' output board upgrade for the bifrost. It's based on the gungnir's output stage. Could be interesting.
There's some interesting stuff by @will on the decware forums about 'riding the gain'. I don't fully understand, but I think it's to do with fine tuning how much the pre- and power- amps contribute relatively of their individual signature to the final sound. I don't think it matters whether the pre is tube, SS or unknown alien technology! It's more to do with the gain controls of e.g. the csp2 I think. Btw, the latter and the zstage will uses have a lot of voltage range, easily more than the 3-4V the taboo II likes to see.
According to Steve Deckert a point of difference of taboo iii is he raised the gain so a preamp isn't needed - and Frank found as much in his review. See Steve's thread on decware where he first announced the new amp for that and other interesting stuff.
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Great, Thanks for the reply. I will need to look into the Concero it seems. I am also debating the Bifrost updates. Waiting for some reviews on the update.
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Great, Thanks for the reply. I will need to look into the Concero it seems. I am also debating the Bifrost updates. Waiting for some reviews on the update.
Argo Duck
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My über board just shipped - likely two weeks to nz though. I have some very specific listening tests to repeat, three other dacs and an spl meter in the house. I'm keen to update my review, fwiw. Don't have a lot of spare time, but should be able to settle a few key points.
Judging by the Concero thread, it's a lot of dac for the money.
Judging by the Concero thread, it's a lot of dac for the money.
OPR8R
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In case anyone was wondering, this is what the new Taboo looks like playing Mahler (5). Sorry for the crappy mobile phone pic.
Also, I didn't think I like the volume knob as much as I do, but I like it quite a bit.
Also, I didn't think I like the volume knob as much as I do, but I like it quite a bit.
OPR8R
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![size]](http://files.head-fi.org/images/smilies/beerchug.gif[size=13px][/size])
mwindham08
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Ugh...mine is waiting for a base. I emailed them 2 weeks ago and they said that wouldn't be a problem.
Hope they manage to get some made pretty soon.
Ugh...mine is waiting for a base. I emailed them 2 weeks ago and they said that wouldn't be a problem.
Hope they manage to get some made pretty soon.
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