Hi,

I've had an original Taboo and it has always hummed but never interfered with the music. Lately it has become louder and seems to be coming from the transformer. I tried all of Steves "hum troubleshooting" techniques based on his paper to no avail.

Is there anyone else who has experienced this and found a remedy? If at all possible I would prefer not to send it back for repair.
Thanx!

I don't know where this paper you refer to about "hum troubleshooting" lives... thus I don't know what's in it.  
Are you talking about "hum" you hear from the speakers (ground loop problem most likely) or emanating from a physical transformer on the Taboo?  Is the hum constant in volume or go up and down with the volume control?

I've had a couple of components over the years that had "mechanical" humming/buzzing transformer issues.  Sometimes this is related to some small amount of DC on the circuit you have the component plugged into.

Have you tried:

• unplug everything that is plugged into the same circuit/breaker as your taboo. If the hum goes away - one of the devices you unplugged is dumping DC back on to the circuit.
• if the above doesn't stop the hum, still leave all the stuff you unplugged in step #1 unplugged, and then disconnect your preamp/sources, etc. - whatever you have upstream of your Taboo.  if the hum goes away, one of your upstream components may be passing DC.
• if none of the above has any impact on reducing the hum, there is likely a problem with your Taboo - call Decware.

also... Emotiva makes a device, the CMX-2, that is specifically designed to eliminate DC offset on your powerline.
http://emotiva.com/products/accessories/cmx-2
I have one of these, that I plug some of my sources into, but my entire system is not drawing power thru it.

Every since I started plugging my source, preamp and amp all into the same circuit, my systems superfluous background noise has been nearly nonexistent.  Then I subsequently started using a PS Audio power re-generator, and noise I didn't know I had disappeared, and detail I'd never heard before appeared - and the system is quiet as a tomb.  No humming, no buzzing, nothing via 100db sensitivity speakers, nor any mechanical buzz at all either from any of the transformers of my Torii, nor from my tube preamp.