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Lucid Mode Switch Off should go Silent or Mono? (Read 9877 times)
johnny_boy
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Lucid Mode Switch Off should go Silent or Mono?
01/06/14 at 06:35:06
 
New proud owner of Taboo. Smiley

I am using all 1/4" plug headphones.

According to the instruction, the classic mode should be ON in order to function and if I turn it off, it goes SILENT.

Mine does not go silent, when I turn off, it sort of goes into MONO. Is this normal?
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Rivieraranch
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Re: Lucid Mode Switch Off should go Silent or Mono?
Reply #1 - 01/06/14 at 11:44:24
 
Yes. I read that you need to have the old lucid mode (right switch) on for the 1/4 inch jack to work.
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MINI TORII & ZROCK2 both anniversaried; 'Lil Audio F-15; TECHNICS SL1200MK2 KAB MODDED TT; ONKYO 6 DISC CD; MARANTZ 2226B; SCHIIT MULTIBIT DAC; SENNHEISER HD-580s
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johnny_boy
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Re: Lucid Mode Switch Off should go Silent or Mono?
Reply #2 - 01/06/14 at 11:49:58
 
the weird thing is with the right lucid mode OFF, the 1/4" jack still works fine for me. Is that suppose to be the case?
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mark58
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Re: Lucid Mode Switch Off should go Silent or Mono?
Reply #3 - 01/06/14 at 12:29:55
 
My experience is you will get music but it will be off...for example in Kind Of Blue, Cannonball sounds like he's playing in the back hall.  Same with a Paul Desmond CD....either Desmond or Jim Hall were outside the studio.  On stereo recordings you definitely notice but on Mono there is no change....I think.  Mark.
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"The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved with the concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, deceptions, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night and his affections dark as Hell. Let no such man be trusted." William Shakespeare
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Rivieraranch
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Re: Lucid Mode Switch Off should go Silent or Mono?
Reply #4 - 01/06/14 at 13:24:36
 
The bottom line is that you have to experiment with each lucid switch on each recording. Sometimes in new lucid mode, vocals get overwhelmed and swallowed up by the music; when this happens, switching to old lucid works better.
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MINI TORII & ZROCK2 both anniversaried; 'Lil Audio F-15; TECHNICS SL1200MK2 KAB MODDED TT; ONKYO 6 DISC CD; MARANTZ 2226B; SCHIIT MULTIBIT DAC; SENNHEISER HD-580s
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mark58
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Re: Lucid Mode Switch Off should go Silent or Mono?
Reply #5 - 01/06/14 at 13:51:00
 
The only recordings that I seem to like consistently with New Lucid Mode, are small group jazz without busy drums...cymbals.  For example, Chet Baker in a drum-less trio...Trumpet, Bass and Guitar...are pretty cool.  But I found new lucid mode to be too much in most circumstances. Now that I have a Balanced Silver Widow Cable for my Audeze headphones, I usually don't use any lucid modes. Mark.
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"The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved with the concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, deceptions, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night and his affections dark as Hell. Let no such man be trusted." William Shakespeare
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johnny_boy
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Re: Lucid Mode Switch Off should go Silent or Mono?
Reply #6 - 01/06/14 at 19:50:03
 
I agree with all the comments above from folks about where the new Lucid mode is useful. Most of the time it is off. It sounds pretty good  when I was listening some Alison Krauss records with minimal instrumentation and no drums/cymbals.

BTW, for those people who are only using the 1/4" jack, which means the right Lucid mode should be ON, does that make the sound to go into CLASSIC Lucid mode or not? It sounds like there is no cross feed at that setting with 1/4 jack, to my ears. If it is ON, I would like to completely turn it OFF. Is that possible? Is there a 1/4" stereo jack to XLR adapter that I can use maybe?
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Rivieraranch
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Re: Lucid Mode Switch Off should go Silent or Mono?
Reply #7 - 01/07/14 at 02:03:46
 
I can definitely tell the difference when old lucid mode is on as opposed to when it is off.
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MINI TORII & ZROCK2 both anniversaried; 'Lil Audio F-15; TECHNICS SL1200MK2 KAB MODDED TT; ONKYO 6 DISC CD; MARANTZ 2226B; SCHIIT MULTIBIT DAC; SENNHEISER HD-580s
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johnny_boy
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Re: Lucid Mode Switch Off should go Silent or Mono?
Reply #8 - 01/07/14 at 02:26:35
 
Can you help me answer this question?

"If you are using 1/4 jack unbalanced headphone, and left wide Lucid mode if OFF, and the right classic mode is ON (it has to when you are using 1/4" jack), is any Lucid mode on or off?"

I think it is OFF.

But the same setting with the XLR balanced headphone, I think the Classic mode is enabled. Can you confirm?

If that is not the case, it means on 1/4" jack headphone, it always have one type of Lucid mode on, which is bad? Sad I realized that I do not generally prefer any Lucid mode on. I just want straight music as is.
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johnny_boy
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Re: Lucid Mode Switch Off should go Silent or Mono?
Reply #9 - 01/07/14 at 19:13:53
 
I am answering my own question with Steve's words.  :)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--

The reason I'm posting here this evening is to talk about lucid mode and single-ended headphone cables.



The taboo design has a floating output stage, meaning that the negative speaker jacks are not connected to ground like is typical in 99.9% of amplifiers.  This is what makes it so Taboo, and what makes possible it's Lucid Mode feature.  



A single ended headphone jack has only three wires, not four.  That means the grounds for each channel are tied together.  Since the Taboo will not tolerate this, the ground for the headphone jack can only come from one channel or the other.  To get around this issue, the ground is tied into the lucid mode switch so that lucid mode itself can create a virtual ground for the headphones.  That means that original lucid mode must be ON at all times for proper operation of single ended headphone cables.  Turning the switch off will cause the virtual ground to vanish leaving one or the other channels without a ground.  This will cause strange things to happen sonically, which includes the experience I quoted at the start of this post.



It's really very simple.  Keep Original Lucid Mode ON when using headphones that employ single-ended cables.  Original Lucid Mode is a natural and accurate frequency based cross-feed that you would usually want to have ON anyway - with virtually all headphones.



Otherwise, get yourself a balanced cable for your headphones, that way the grounds of each channel are separate at all times, just like loudspeakers... which is partly why balanced sounds better than single ended cables with the Taboo Mk III.  



I will be writing a paper on New Lucid Mode soon, as it can be used as a tool to evaluate the quality of many recordings.  Because it works by revealing information hidden in the recordings that is out of phase from channel to channel...  rendering it silent to the ears... it lets one evaluate how much phase angle discrepancy there is between the various tracks before they were mixed down to two channels.  In my paper I'll explain exactly how that works...  but the result is simple.  Audiophile recordings that were done with purist practices and are free of excessive phase distortion between tracks caused by microphone placement, electronics and effects busses, will sound absolutely stunning without New Lucid Mode turned on.  Then when New Lucid Mode IS turned on, you will hear almost nothing change.  On the flip side, hearing a big change when New Lucid Mode is used is indicative of a less than great recording and if analyzed, shows much of how the recoding was mixed and mastered.  Of course fake or digital reverb effects common in main stream recordings are not going to sound good with New Lucid Mode turned ON.



Hope these insights increase your understanding of the Taboo which in turn increase your enjoyment of it.  This is a very serious listening machine for very serious headphones and very serious recordings. And thanks to New Lucid Mode, half of the 80% of less than great recordings can now be heard as though a mastering guru made the recording.  Certainly increased the size of my serious listening library!



Thanks,



Steve Deckert.
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