What about with a speaker cutoff switch? Should you use the headphones with the speakers connected? My TABOO is up at DECWARE right now waiting for the headphone jack to be installed. Are there any instructions on how to use the unit as a headphone amp?

I spoke to Steve about it and he said he could do one. He said that the amp should be connected to the speakers when running. That the speaker output would be slight with the headphone jack filled. With what you are saying I am concerned about the sonic implications.  

There's an idea. I will let you know what I find out when I speak to him. He usually calls the customer when he has a repair or upgrade piece on the bench.

Hmm. I have Audeze LCD-2s too. I considered the effect of speaker sound coming through the headphones. But the difference is just too great to be explained by that. For one thing, it is much louder with the speakers disconnected. But also, the tonal difference is far from subtle. Unplugging the speakers introduces new highs especially, as well as a very distinct difference in the way it is presented. Much sharper, less musical. With the speakers there is more base and the tone smooths out and becomes fuller. Some of this could be attributed to the speakers themselves, but the difference is just too pronounced and the speaker volumn is not high enough to make as much of a difference that I hear. It really is very, very different.

I wonder if having a pre-amp in front of the Taboo would have an effect here. I don't have a pre-amp, so my interconnects are connected to outer set of connectors, which has an effect on the route the signal takes.

Now I'd really be intereseted in what Steve says about this.

I fear that the use of the TABOO with headphones is not widespread at this time. I recall Steve mentioning that you could remove the speaker wires and put a resistor across the speaker terminals.

Maybe it is better just to use the headphones with the speakers playing at low volume.

I'm hunting down a pair of GRADOS probably SR80i. Steve told me that the TABOO will "drive the s * * t out of them."

The headphones sound different without speakers connected whether or not lucid mode is on.

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?

This thread is really old and I don't know if anyone will see this, but I feel a responsibility to post an update. When I made the initial post describing the difference through headphones when speakers are connected and when they are not, that difference was really, truly, a large, impossible to ignore, difference. It really did sound bad without speakers connected and it confused me that others did not seem to be having the same experience. Well, it turns out that my amp had a disconnected loopback wire. That's right. Not long ago I sent the Taboo in for an upgrade to the new lucid mode. It came back with a note that the loopback wire had come disconnected during shipping and had been fixed. WELL, now I can discern barely any difference at all when listening through headphones without the speakers connected vs. when they are. The only perceptible difference I can hear is a slight - very slight - change in volume. That loopback wire had been disconnected since I first got the amp! So if you have a Taboo with headphone jack and listen to it without speakers connected don't worry, there is nothing sub par about that, at all!

Call Steve at Decware.