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Zen TABOO Review
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Re: Zen Taboo Amplifier Beta Test
Circle « Reply #92 on: 03/09/05 at 3:32pm
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I have listened to the Taboo with 3 different speakers to date, several
sources, and the addition of one bottlehead foreplay pre-amplifier. My source
is an inexpensive sony sacd/dvd player (as I sold my tjoeb 4000 recently). And,
if I get a chance, a rega turntable hopefully tomorrow before I send the Taboo
on. Hornshope horns - You can read my previous comments. To my ears
there was an improvement in bass, and fullness. The music had a palpable
quality that I really enjoyed - especially on more modern music such as radio
head or coldplay (which sounded thin on the select/hornshoppe combination.) It
might be extra power as much as anything, but I really enjoyed this combination.
Also, my cd player seemed to drive the taboo well and the pre-amp wasn't
needed. Rearloaded fostex 206e horns. - I couldn't get this
combination to sound half as good as the hornshoppe horns. I tried with the
pre-amplifier and without and either way the result was disappointing. It might
be my speakers or the drivers which are still breaking in. This combination
sounded better with the Select-ex. But not as good as the hornshoppe horns.
Decware Radials 1.5 - These are Gary's speakers and we listened to the
Select Ex first for about an hour. As I had never heard the radials I was
curious to what they were all about. Gary used a modded dvd player as the
source, and it drove the select EX fine. The sound was, as has been described
before, very transparent and with a sound stage that was so wide it took some
time for me to adjust to it. We listened mostly to Jazz cds for our
comparasion. After listening for some time, we swapped out the C EX for the
Taboo. At first, without a preamp, the sound was very thin and it seemed
obvious that his cd player didn't put out enough power to drive the amp. The
sound was okay, but for a minute there we were worried that the combination
wasn't going to fly. (And, I was hoping that we wouldn't have to judge our
opinions on the Taboo with the foreplay preamplifier in the circuit. Nothing
against it, just that it was another factor to shuffle in) Well, with the
preamp in the mix, things came together nicely. We listened for another hour
and as it had with the hornshoppe horns before, the Taboo seemed to really
impart a palpable quality to the music. The difference between select and taboo
wasn't as obvious as it was to me earlier on the horns, but both Gary and I
agreed that the combination was very very good. Gary can post his impressions
but I safely say that he seemed very happy with what his new radials were doing.
Unfortunatly we ran out of time. In hind sight we should have ran the C EX
with the preamplifier in the mix for a better comparasion. Scott.
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