TEKTONS are good, but I would look for a DECWARE product to complement the Mini.

Welcome!

Well, one reason is the crossover design. The crossover is a very simple design in the Decware and Zen Ziegler speakers, it doesn't "drain" a lot of power. The speakers present a manageable load to the amplifiers. It's possible to have a very efficient speaker with a complicated crossover that will not perform as loudly as one might think.

Another factor is room size. I used to drive my Radial RL1s and RL2s with a Select and then an Integrated and the sound was marvelous and loudness quite sufficient in my dedicated listening room, which was not large. When I was able to move the system out into my living-room/dining-room area, considerably larger (yay! Its' better than a dedicate room) I could not achieve loudness levels I needed for video and music. Moving to the Torii was the answer for me then. I never once thought of getting another pair of speakers; the speakers Bob builds are going to be in my systems all the time. They're that good.

I rekon "ear splitting" would be loud enough!

RR, I believe it was you who said he prefers the Taboo as headphone amp for Audeze over Mini Torii, because of Lucid Mode. So how about as driver for the Zen Zieglers? Which do you prefer and why, if I may ask?

I have found relief for 'shout' to some degree with the 'Gizmo' sold by Decware. I am sure it works better on some speakers than others, but maybe the Tekton would be a candidate. This is the same device used with the FRX drivers, but equipped with a variable load(potentiometer).

Just to follow up on this post, I have ended up with a pair of MG-944  speakers I bought used from a seller on this forum and have a Taboo with headphone mod and vcaps on order. I do a lot of headphone listenning and the Taboo just edged out the Mini Torii because of Lucid Mode.

I'm going to try it without the CSP2 for awhile and see how it goes. I talked with Steve about it before making my decision and he says that with the vcaps the Taboo is good without a pre-amp if the source is at least 2V which mine is. That's not to say it wouldn't be nice to have a CSP2, just that it might not be necessary. According to Steve, the Taboo is more transparent without the CSP2, while, on the other hand, the CSP2 has a way of "fixing" the digital overtones of a source DAC serving MP3s. I've got a really (I hope) nice DAC on the way which I am excited to hear with the Taboo and do direct comparison with my Burson HA-160D. It is the dB Audio Labs Tranquility SE (that I found used for a great price.) I'll keep you all posted when the Taboo gets here...

Seems to me:
1. The CSP2+ will give you a seocndary headphone option along with the Taboo, but likely offer the most additional, though likely pleasing, coloration, over which you will have much control;
2. The ZBOX will soften the digital edge of an incoming digital source, but will offer no gain, and is not likely to make a Taboo sound any better with whatever headphones you like;
3. The ZSTAGE will allow the Taboo to truly blossom [as it does with my Audez'e LCD-2 cans], but won't offer a secondary headphone outlet. The ZSTAGE may be simplest of all to voice in that respect. I have run my Taboo through one of my ERR pairs just for fun, and volume was not a shortcoming, and that was without the ZSTAGE [mine is being sent to gatornavy]. I tried it with and without the Ultra, and it got plenty loud.