Decware Zen Taboo MKIV

Fair enough, but I'll take a little grit with good tone over mushy.

 

Ampsandsound Kenzie nails tonality Also Ampsandsound has timbre and musicality on its side. The taboo doesn't give me the same instant connection to the music that the Mogwai and Kenzie gives.

 

The Decware speaker amps come with the options for stepped attenuators for volume control, so you can maintain balance by counting the steps in the attenuator as you turn the volume up. Is that option available for the Taboo?

 

this would be interesting to hear about. but also keep in mind that the Taboo has crap ton of power whereas the zds is really suited for dynamic phones. but you're right at ~2.5k it sits close to ZDS, the Ampsandsound that @gbeast has, even close Aficionado and others. Surely these all have their own house sound but would be interesting comparison.

 

Not the ZDS but maybe @cskippy would want to compare it to his ZD3rd iteration with upgrades (comes close to the ZDS and I hear better caps would get it there...sorry if I misquoted you). However my schedule has become a lot more busy now. We will see.

 

tl;dr- Being able to tweak the L/R channels individually is handy. Different headphones at the same volume can sound off center to your individual perception. Split channel volume control lets you center any specific headphone to your own head.

Longer more sciency answer: Human ears are rarely perfectly balanced in terms of L/R sound sensitivity. Your body also uses a whackton of stuff to determine directional cues in nature - headphones getting rid of many of these compared to speakers. And each kind of headphone will transmit differently. Positioning and frequency curves of the headphones will affect how much energy is coming in through bone conduction vs air vibration.

This results in a total perceptual gong-show, which the Taboo rather elegantly addresses by forcing you to confront the issue in the first place.

 

And just fyi, the stepped attenuator is seemingly a, uhhh, "step" in the wrong direction on those amps. Or at the very least I've had a couple discussions with Zen Mystery Amp owners who have described SQ benefits to hardwiring a bypass and using only the preamp for volume. Not the equivalent of always leaving the amp volume at 100%.

 

Theres a lot of wonky steppers out there that end out sounding worse than the venerable RK27 (ahem, DACT) but people love steppers as a selling point.

 

Can you request a hardwired bypass when you order? I never cared about the volume controls on a speaker amp since I'd always run them through a preamp anyway (not entirely relevant to the Taboo specifically, I realize).

 

I don't know, but I heard he was perfectly willing to build in Lundahl MC SUTs into one guy's Decware phono upon request. So he's at least open to user requests.

But I would say just don't upgrade to the stepped attenuator, and use the basic volume control. Volume control on the amp is about gain structure, and often desirable in order to find the sweet spot where S/N is best. Somewhere below max on the amp with the preamp wider open is often a good place to be.

 

http://earphiles.org/2017/09/decware-taboo-mkiv-review/

sorry for the delay. I have a lot going on.

 

Happy to find a dedicated thread for decware taboo.

I've used this amp for roughly four months. Originally ordered this for my eikon (after confirming some potentials at a local meeting), but later found way more synergy with ether flow. In fact, eikon worked well with almost every amp I tried (joten, dave hp out, woo audio tubes, agd nfb1, ..). Taboo4 clearly improved eikon's reproductions a lot (compared to my joten), but no surprising synergies.

On the other hand, I almost hated flow after eikon dominated my listening hours. Seriously considered to sell it to finance another dream gears. Taboo4 let me know what flow really can do. WTF the combination (Gungnir Multibit + taboo4 w/ lucid on + flow) sounded really terrific.. at least to my taste. Eikon still does several things much better (e.g. treble timbre, human vocals, bass impact, general tonality) though.

I really like this amp.. only except that strange dual volume knobs!

@gbeast : Great review. I fully agree with most of your statements, particularly with how you expressed lucid mode.

 

Did you get the balanced Taboo IV? I'm considering the Taboo IV or Aficionado, but I'd have to give up the Yggdrasil for a Gungnir Multibit to stay in budget. And I don't want to give up the Yggdrasil-dreams just yet.

 

Currently my T4 is paired with Gungnir Multibit via unbalanced rca cables, but no idea whether this amp is fully balanced/bridged.
I assume AF exists in the totally different league in terms of price and perhaps performance as well. Really satisfied with T4 so that I cannot think any further amp upgrades lol (except some tube rollings). This is, to me, the end-game-amplifier, period.

I also have some curiosity about Yggdrasil, but Gungnir Multibit sounds so lovely now. Very little motivation to upgrade. lol

 

Loudspeaker output of taboo 4 was greater than I initially expected.. I am using tekton lore (very efficient tower loudspeakers). Staging and imaging made from taboo4+Gungnir Multibit is quite holographic.. freaking me out!

 

I have a Decware Taboo MkIV and it is a pleasure to hear the ZMF Atticus thru it. Sorry but I do not have any other amps to come to. I do know that I will be selling my grado ps500's. Bass is to wooly compared to the Atticus thru this system. I so enjoy the tight bass of the Atticus.

 

I'm sorry, this may well be a great amp, but whoever is responsible for that wiring job should have his fingers broken. Denis? I sure hope there's been some improvement since '05...Again, forgive me but I was taught (a long time ago, granted) that wiring had to be of properly high quality, properly routed and properly NEAT! As important as anything else in the chain of production.

Right, rant over.

 

Has anyone had the opportunity to compare a mk3 vs mk4?

 

Someone has compared Decware Taboo MkIV and the Feliks Audio Euforia ?