Decware TABOOMKIII, Zen TABOO Mk III Owner's Manual

O W N E R S M A N U A L

MANUAL NO. 02 REV. DATE: 3/20/2013

The Zen Taboo MK III

Planar Headphone Amplifier

MODEL TABOOMKIII

Decware High Fidelity Engineering Co., East Peoria IL, USA www.decware.com

O W N E R S M A N U A L

INTRODUCTION

Thank you for purchasing the Zen TABOO MKIII headphone/speaker amplifier. Before
we get started, let’s introduce you to the fundamental part of the Taboo we call “Lucid
Mode”

OFF

OFF

ON ON

ORIGINAL LUCID MODENEW LUCID MODE

Note the lucid mode switches to the right and left of the large black transformer.

Lucid mode is an optional imaging enhancer that can be turned on and off via the two
switches shown above. There are actually two lucid modes, hence the two switches.

The switch on the right hand side (original lucid mode) must be turned ON when
standard 1/4 inch headphone cables are used for proper operation. Original Lucid
Mode is a form of cross-feed designed to give a more natural soundstage through
headphones. Turning the switch off will not hurt anything, but the right channel ground
path will be taken from the left channel. This effect is seldom heard on music, but if
you were to remove the left channel source you would no longer be able to hear the
right channel as well, resulting in silence.

Decware High Fidelity Engineering Co., East Peoria IL, USA www.decware.com

O W N E R S M A N U A L

When using balanced XLR headphone cables, you may turn original lucid mode on or
off at will without the rather odd results described above. This is because original lucid
mode was designed for speakers, not headphones - where the ground wire of each
channel is shared.

LUCID MODE WITH SPEAKERS

Since the original lucid mode was designed for speakers, there are no issues using it
with speakers. New Lucid mode, however, was designed for 50 ohm planar
headphones as a super imaging enhancement, and while it can be used with
speakers, the maximum power of the amplifier into speakers is reduced when New
Lucid mode is engaged. Basically if you’re planning on using New Lucid mode with
speakers you’ll have to restrict yourself to modest volume levels. Turning New Lucid
mode OFF restores full power to the loudspeakers.

NEW LUCID MODE - HOW IT WORKS

Unlike Original Lucid mode, who’s effect is subtle... New Lucid mode’s effect is
anything but subtle! It expands the soundstage in all directions giving you the
sensation of being on stage and part of the music. It does however have different
results from one recording to another... this can lead to questions like the following:

“Using New Lucid mode I hear Doug Mcleod’s voice coming out of the right and his
guitar coming out of the left. In stereo the image has him playing the guitar while singing
and he is standing more toward the left side in the studio... but it sounds like someone else
is playing the guitar in lucid mode. Why does it do that?”

New Lucid Mode works by in part by allowing information from the L and R channels to
mix at different phase angles based on frequency.!This causes information that is
perfectly identical on both channels to be reduced in amplitude.! It also can cause the
differences between channels to magnify.! And while it sounds simple enough it will
have unique results from recording to recording.!Some recordings it will come off as an
echo and ruin it. Some recordings, like Doug Mcleod, will separate into the original pan
settings before the two microphones and corresponding tracks were summed and then
panned slightly left.!Some recordings will have tons of information that is faint in the
background that explodes to life when "new" lucid mode is used.!

Everything you hear is the result of changing the amplitude and phase angle of what is
already there on the recording. You could think of it as uncovering hidden information
in cases like that. !

Decware High Fidelity Engineering Co., East Peoria IL, USA www.decware.com

O W N E R S M A N U A L

Hidden information is possible by simply having the information 180 degrees out of
phase between the two channels so it cancels. Tweaking the phase angle by even a
few degrees on either channel would suddenly make this information audible. !It is not
uncommon for recordings to have tons of out of phase information in the channels that
would normally never be heard. It's a pretty wild ride.!New Lucid mode is designed for
recreational use only.

USING LOUDSPEAKERS OR SUBWOOFERS

Due to the unique circuit of the Taboo, the entire output stage is floating with a virtual
ground. This can cause issues with some subwoofers that use speaker level inputs
where the negative speaker jacks are common to each other and or tied to ground.
Hooking a subwoofer amplifier up in this way will cause the Taboo to osculate. Hooking
up an oscilloscope will cause the same thing to happen because both attempt to tie
the negative speaker jacks together into a common ground.

To use either one of these (scope or subwoofer) simply reverse the polarity at the
speaker jacks on the amplifier. Pretend the Red is negative and the Black is positive.

(Yes, another Taboo element of the design, it’s the amp engineers love to hate.)

Decware High Fidelity Engineering Co., East Peoria IL, USA www.decware.com