I want to order a Tabbo Mk IV and wanted to know if I could opt for a single stereo pot and not 2 individual L/R pots?

I'm sorry you haven't had a response in two days. Decware does have an issue with customer communications at times. There's only a few people on hand to answer, and I know that's a slim excuse. Over a few decades I've become somewhat blind to the reality, and do know that patience is needed (and is often rewarded). . . .

Reading what Steve has written about the Taboo Mk IV and how convinced he is of the efficacy of dual volume controls, and also owning one and finding the usefulness of the dual volume controls in two systems, I don't think that a single volume control is an option for this component. If it were I believe it would be posted as an option in the shopping cart basket, and it is not. Though in time you may hear definitively from Steve or Sarah.

The Taboo Mk IV is a wonderful component, a killer amp for speakers and headphones.  I'm listening to mine driving HR-1 speakers right now.

I hear you, that would be a bit inconvenient. I'm lucky in that I can adjust via a remote. Still I do on occasion walk over and tweak the amp's volume controls. With a little experience and practice it's very easy to adjust each together at once or separately--and I often only do so to adjust "balance" for a particular set of recordings and it's very nice to have that sort of balance control either for room imbalance with speakers or recording imbalance on headphones.

No, the remote is not an option on this machine. In this system I use the remote volume adjustment of the Oppo UDP-205 which I use for discs and the digital output of my DVR, and in the audio only system I have used the Taboo in (but generally use SE84UFO3 Monoblocks with the 25th Anniversary Mods) I use the remote volume control offered by the Decware ZTPRE preamp.

Dual volume controls can seem daunting but in no time at all it's very easy to acclimate to adjusting them, and the "balance control" aspect is really useful in many rooms and surprisingly more recordings than I thought there would be.

If I understand this correctly, there should be an option for STEPPED mono attenuators. Very easy to adjust and just a s accurate as any other method if not more so. I did this with a Rachael amp. No worries. Besides, this gives more control over imbalances of all kinds.

4krow wrote on 04/30/20 at 00:34:19:


I looked it up, here is what Steve said in the introductory thread in this forum about the dual volume controls and NOT using stepped attenuators:

No longer are there input level controls next to each input jack. In the past these went largely unused, and if they were used it was to adjust balance between channels. Now we have DUAL volume controls, one for each channel so that you can make fine channel balance adjustments. We feel STRONGLY that this is the best way to control level on a reference headphone rig, which this is. If you feel anxiety about using two controls, rest easy it's a wonderful experience compared to a single control... BY FAR.

Also, there will be no stepped attenuated options, even though we would likely sell a TON of them, the steps defeat the infinite adjustability that is so important with headphone listening, and in this case would also make it impossible to make fine balance adjustments defeating the purpose of having dual volumes in the first place.

I find it perplexing that this is difficult at all. I put one hand on each of them and make fine adjustments simultaneously. Very easy to hear adjustments with headphones, takes a little more practice in the room with speakers. But really easy. If it's not for you I would be very surprised. I'd hate to see you miss out on a great amp for a "non-issue" as I not only see it but experience it.If you are really interested in the amp I would ask you to reconsider, strongly. Alternately I'd call until I reached Steve or Sarah and see if a single volume control version could be done. (Looking at the amp and what I believe to be the internal layout I'm not sure it's possible).

 Thanks for the quick reply Lon. I appreciate it. Your going to think that this is a typo on my part, but it is not. It would involve a pretty big investment, but I have done it on certain equipment where it would fit, but not Decware units. Anyway, it is a combination of a ladder-shunt arrangement that yields 66 step of adjustment in 1db increments!. Wow, good news there. It can be done in either stereo or mono configurements, but the bad news is this>>> It takes up a bunch of room, since multiple switches, and resistors are used. I used it on my handcrafted headphone amp years ago, and find it to be overkill even for me. You could use inexpensive parts, but why would you bother? I used the best resistors that I could find for the price (KOA 1% metal film), and Gold Point switches. Fine product by any standard.
 Lastly, I will state that there are some infinitely variable pots with many detents. Just wanted to add some options, or not, to the table, but yes, it would likely be a special build or aftermarket thing.