Hi,

Yesterday morning, a thick smoke came out of my SE34I.2+ which I use in my bedroom system for late-night listening fed by a Cambridge Audio DacMagic 100 and driving a pair of Rega RS-1 (8 ohms and 89-90 dB @1m1w).  Temporarily I replaced the amp with my TABOO mkIII and two things were striking:

- TABOO had a much better sound stage, detail and separation (with the lucid modes off).  Sound-wise, I definitely preferred the TABOO to the SE34I.2+.

- TABOO had significantly less volume than the SE34I.2+.  I liked this as well, since I cannot go on the SE34I.2+ above 8:30-9:00 when the digital source is at its max volume-wise.  With the TABOO, I can easily turn the volume above 12:00 and the amp pushes a great sound at the volume level, much more detailed, more even at different frequencies and much better bass.

Anyway, given my affinity for the SV83 output tubes (over the EL34s), I ordered an SE84UFO to replace the SE34I.2+, assuming the sound quality would be more similar to the TABOO despite the triode/pentode difference between the two designs.

My question is where the SE84UFO would sit volume-wise in comparison to the TABOO and the SE34I.2+.  I know it is very difficult to come with a straight-forward answer, as the TABOO is spec'd to give 4.8 watts into 8 ohms, whereas the SE34I.2+ is closer to 6 watts per channel and I think I had the 16-ohm output transformers...

Thanks already for the comments...

Best,

Alper

I have a Taboo MKII and was interested in Super Zens as mono blocks, so I spoke to Steve about this once and he mentioned to me in an email that despite wattage, the Super Zen was actually about 10-15% louder than the Taboo.  The Taboo really needs a Preamp to come into peak volume when used with loudspeakers.

The Super Zen requires 2.0 volts for full output, the Taboo requires 2.1 volts.  I know this .1 volts doesn't seem like a lot, but once I used a preamp with the Taboo it really blossomed.

So it was stated earlier in this thread that even as little as .1 of a volt makes a difference. And I think that is my issue as well. Because when I am using me Denon CD player, the sound I am getting is simply amazing. It outputs at 2VRMS. And I hardly ever turn the volume knob on my SE84 UFO past THE 1oclock position. But the story is way different when I am listening to my digital sources through my Schiit audio dac that is outputting at 1.5VRMS. I have to turn the volume all the way up on my amp to get adequate volume but it doesn't sound right. I love what I hear from the cd player, not so much from the dac. That is about to change tonight as I am putting a new dac into my system that outputs at 2.0 VRMS. So we will see if that remedies the issues of my digital sources. Hope so!