Hi Steve...

I just bought a used Taboo III. I am a heavy speaker listener, but have been dabbling in headphones for about 10 years or more as an alternative for late night listening. The used price on this Taboo seemed like a no brainer. That was one of the biggest understatements of my stereo buying career, which is pretty long now.

I'll cut to the chase. I run Zu speakers, and I have their latest Druid 6, which I love dearly, like I love the other 3 pairs I have from them, but these are way better still. I have two sets of very highly regarded SET amps...both costing $16K and $12K respectively, when new. The first, a PSET 300B mono set that Zu people I trust claim is the best amp to pair with Zu's highest end speakers. The second is an 845 SET mono set, also very very highly regarded. Both have top-end current production European 300B and 845 tubes, which by themselves cost way more than the Taboo III did new, let alone used. These tubes are also highly recommended with each respective mono block, so I'm sure I'm getting the best out of these two topologies from these two top manufacturers.

"For fun, I should hook this tiny amp up in the main rig and see how it drives the new Zus." I put it behind my Atma-Sphere MP-1 pre (which I also love dearly) on a nice power cable, balanced power and great interconnects. You can guess where I'm going. About 3 hours later I was like, "holy crap, this is better than my best amps." Days later and I'm still trying to find some faults. It's the most emotional I've ever had this system sounding, and I CRAVE that.