I bought a Taboo MK III about the summer of 2013, new from Decware.  At some point I added a CSP3 but haven't used it with anything other than my laptop lately. The CSP3 lives with the Torii.  Oddly your post reminded me that The Taboo had difficulty with Omega 93 dB sensitivity, 8 ohm speakers. I could not drive them to adequate volumes even though my Zen Signature Monoblocks at 2.3 WPC has more than adequate volume with headroom to spare.  I have never gotten a satisfactory explanation why this is.

I don't remember having any problem with volume with or without the CSP3 while listening with my Audeze LCD 2.2 headphones...ZP3 and Jolida 100 CD player (Line Output Voltage: > 2V, 47 Kohms).  What I'll do for you is hook up the Jolida 100 I have in the den to the Taboo only and listen with my Audeze Cans.  I'll come back and comment after a while.  Mark.

PS...OK, I have a balanced cable and use no lucid modes.  I listened to a little Joni Mitchell's "Court and Spark" and my listening level was 3 or 4 clicks from max.  Then I listened to Little Feat's "Waiting For Columbus"...track 12, "Spanish Moon" and found 5 clicks from max to be to my liking.  So you probably don't have a malfunctioning Taboo MK III but rather it's something to do with the Taboo design itself.  I love the Taboo but something isn't right...a 4.6 WPC Amp should be able to drive a speaker with 93 dB sensitivity to more than enough volume.  Also,  I use the stock tubes except for a 50's RCA 5u4G rectifier.  Cables are Decware DSR and power cord is stock from Decware.

Mark,

I'm sorry I didn't follow your response.  You're saying that the listening level when running the Jolida straight into the Taboo is 4 or 5 (with the LCD2s) from max?  Mine is fully maxed out or maybe 1 click away from max.  Wouldn't that mean that mine is performing differently from yours?

The reason I don't think it's the Taboo is I bought it through Decware and it has always been this way.  A Head-Fi'er sold it to me while it was still on Steve's bench and they shipped it straight to me.  I have had this volume issue from day one which is why I bought the CSP.  I liked how clean it was just using the Taboo but just not enough gain.

Thanks very much Mark, really appreciate it.  

So in your estimation that's just the way it is without a preamp.  I kind of feared that.   I really like the Taboo and the CSP2+ is super clean but for some reason together in my system it just didn't do it for me.

That's why I asked about running balanced into the Taboo.  The output of my DAC is about 8db higher from it's balanced outputs.

Ian

I don't know why I got rid of it to be honest.  I just felt I wanted to try something different with the Taboo, I just never loved the two of them together.  The dynamics were great but I thought it wasn't quite as transparent as I would have liked.  For the price it's a terrific preamp.  I am looking at $2k+ preamps now to pair with the Taboo.  I am curious how that will work out.

What I really wanted is to run balanced because I think that would have given me enough juice to drive the LCDs with the Taboo.  I have typically run my systems in the past without a preamp because it's cleaner.