I talked to Steve on the phone about this. He said playing headphones without speakers connected will sound different. Not necessarily worse or better, but different. The results will depend on the headphones and personal taste - I happen to think the LCD2's are much better when speakers are connected. He also said you can bridge the speaker connectors with a resistor to get the same results as if speakers are connected. Use 4, 8, 10 ohm resistor or just experiment to get the result you want. This is interesting because with different ohm resistors you could get totally different sounds out of the headphones.

I also asked about a speaker cutoff switch for the Taboo. He can do it, but at present he doesn't attempt to make it as if the speakers are connected when flipping the switch. It would be as if you disconnected the speakers. But, he could put a resistor in there when building the switch if one wanted. Also, a down side of installing a speaker/headphone switch in the Taboo is that with it installed there is no way to play the speakers and headphones at the same time. My experience is that having speakers on at low level when using phones is nice. For one, it adds a bit of three dimensionallity to the listenning experience because of the body's ability to feel the sound waves, even if they are low. But also it makes it so when you take off the phones it isn't like shutting off the music completely, so you can keep tracking it.

I have to cancel my request for a speaker cutoff switch.

So to get this straight, you can buy a cheap resistor and attach it to the + and i?  Or are you bridging both channels?


As in + to + and - to -

In the same vein wouldnt it just be better to connect the LCD-2s to the speaker taps.  With the right headphone cabling of course.

so before I blow out my taboo in whatever period of time it takes to create.  That is connect opposites(+-)  or sames(++, --).

Wonder if an attenuated RCA-RCA jumper would do the trick as well.

What I wish I could try today is bypassing the headphone jack completely and just using the speaker post and buying te headphone cable capable of it.

I miss the days radio shack sold what I needed, resistors.  Not tv's and DVR's

I use headphones without speakers attached.  In my rig, I have found the Decware resistors push the soundstage back several rows.  With some tube combinations this is advantageous, with others not so much.  I haven't found a tube combo I am satisfied with as yet for my CSP2+/Taboo so my final opinion on the resistors is pending.  They are definitely a useful tuning tool.

Don, are the 7.5 ohm resistors from Steve or did you buy them on your own?