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Auralic Taurus Mk II or pre measurement

YSC

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Hi guys,

Just curious although the Taurus Mk II was discontinued long ago, but ppl still ask for Auralic to produce a successor, any idea that a measurement of the old retired amp can make it a comparison beside the new hot topic of the THX AAA babies? Too bad I am too far away in HK to send my own amp for a measurement
 

pozz

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Contact @WolfX-700. He's in China and might be up for it.
 

gino1961

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Hi guys,
Just curious although the Taurus Mk II was discontinued long ago ...

Hi sorry to hijack your thread but there is a guy here where i live selling a Taurus but 1st edition. I wonder if you have any experience/info about it and moreover how much do you still like your mkII.
The asking price is around 600 euro. I have seen the amp and it looks very nicely built. Regards, gino
 
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Hi sorry to hijack your thread but there is a guy here where i live selling a Taurus but 1st edition. I wonder if you have any experience/info about it and moreover how much do you still like your mkII.
The asking price is around 600 euro. I have seen the amp and it looks very nicely built. Regards, gino
I don’t have experience with the mk I, but I still love my mk II so much that I don’t intend to change it anytime until it fails completely
 

gino1961

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I don’t have experience with the mk I, but I still love my mk II so much that I don’t intend to change it anytime until it fails completely
Hi and thank you so much for your kind and valuable advice. I will try to understand if the two versions are more or less comparable in terms of sound quality. The unit is very robust indeed. Thanks again. Kind regards, gino
 
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The only quirk for me is the alps pot. I have 2 years working aboard and let it basically unused and in a pretty humid climate, after I came back and fire it back up seems like the pot wiper corroded a bit and the location where I kept it in now feels like a dent was there and scratchy, while no effect on sound or whatsoever. Sound wise to me it’s at the point where you aren’t likely to hear a difference and a bit on the warm side with slight high frequency roll off. Power should be enough for any headphones available
 

gino1961

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hi again it seems a easily serviceable issue ... i saw someone already suggesting some cleaning ... but if the wipers are really rusty it could not be enough i would contact the company or the local reseller
I am sure by the way that better attenuators do exist ... Alps Blue is fine but attenuators can be better ... size compatibility can be an issue
ObBoSTiKHdsxnNYIxsD9j5MFSTgaAmJ0uoDh-ADhI9iN0ddbpMdq7TLsTx_g2mCx9z4mNqtUb-GDJOM82KB8w_b1hC3Sbz948Q

I have seen the amazing figures of the headphone amps of last generation ... they are very impressive
I have a point. When i find something that really pleases my ears i usually stop bothering about upgrades. I just enjoy music. And sometimes that can happen also with not very expensive units. If i buy this old Taurus i think i would be quite done with headphone amps.
Unfortunately it does not come with a remote because i am pretty sure that also as a preamp it is very very good indeed.
Best regards, gino
 
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YSC

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hi again it seems a easily serviceable issue ... i saw someone already suggesting some cleaning ... but if the wipers are really rusty it could not be enough i would contact the company or the local reseller
I am sure by the way that better attenuators do exist ... Alps Blue is fine but attenuators can be better ... size compatibility can be an issue
ObBoSTiKHdsxnNYIxsD9j5MFSTgaAmJ0uoDh-ADhI9iN0ddbpMdq7TLsTx_g2mCx9z4mNqtUb-GDJOM82KB8w_b1hC3Sbz948Q

I have seen the amazing figures of the headphone amps of last generation ... they are very impressive
I have a point. When i find something that really pleases my ears i usually stop bothering about upgrades. I just enjoy music. And sometimes that can happen also with not very expensive units. If i buy this old Taurus i think i would be quite done with headphone amps.
Unfortunately it does not come with a remote because i am pretty sure that also as a preamp it is very very good indeed.
Best regards, gino
The local dealer in Hong Kong said they likely won’t have parts and won’t do mods, I tried some wd40 contact cleaner and it improves for a few days then get back exactly the same (and I accidentally scratch the outer casing during dissemble), now really difficult to know and find where can I manage to get it fixed due to the pandemic that most repair shops are closed
 
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YSC

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Plus my naughty wallet is tempting me if no shops are available why not love it to a spare unit and try buy some thx789 as a budget replacement though I think I may not like as much
 

gino1961

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Plus my naughty wallet is tempting me if no shops are available why not love it to a spare unit and try buy some thx789 as a budget replacement though I think I may not like as much

Hi if measurements mean anything it is a no brainer. But i have to say that also cheaper units have spectacular performances at the bench
 

Pillars

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Plus my naughty wallet is tempting me if no shops are available why not love it to a spare unit and try buy some thx789 as a budget replacement though I think I may not like as much

Shame you are in HK - I'd help you out here in the US. Best of luck, a pot replacement isn't too bad on the MKii. Well, not as bad as taking the unit apart anyways. I had a unit that would have one channel fade off after a while and fiddling with the knob would have it come back. Pot swap worked.

If you like the Taurus you'd probably also like the Gilmore Lite MKii. Really awesome amp for the money.
 
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Shame you are in HK - I'd help you out here in the US. Best of luck, a pot replacement isn't too bad on the MKii. Well, not as bad as taking the unit apart anyways. I had a unit that would have one channel fade off after a while and fiddling with the knob would have it come back. Pot swap worked.

If you like the Taurus you'd probably also like the Gilmore Lite MKii. Really awesome amp for the money.
Yea, a local shop said though he got no exp on the Taurus but he should be able to replace it by a dact and give it a try, the problem now is they can’t source a DACT CT2 as seems like they are affected by the lockdown so I have to wait. A shame that I can’t even try to ship it to USA now as the shipping is at halt also! Actually if the local shop messed it up I may give the head amp gsx mini with the dact option a shot, looked great, have the dact and power for planar and the lockdown really saved me a ton of money to spend.

For the Taurus mk II I tried open it up and can’t remove the volume knob, do I need to remove the PCB, unscrew the front panel and find a small screw to remove the knob? Seems the remaining step would be to unsolder the alps pot, attach the dact to the volume knob (shaft should be compatible ?), solder the dact with short wires to the pot pcb with short wires and then put things back up again?

thanks for your advise
Sam
 
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A few years ago Tyll from Innerfidelity posted some measurements :

https://www.innerfidelity.com/headphone-amp-measurements

The Taurus MKII is probably not as audibly transparent as many amps sold nowadays, but is still a nice piece of kit.
Yea, with my use for he500 it likely falls around 100 db SINAD range Accor to that, but hell if only fixing the volume will a dact can marginally improve it with a few more years to serve its better than throw it away and buy another one like the 789 where though good, the volume pot is of poorer quality and longevity. And the upgrading shall be cheaper and more environmental friendly
 

Anubhav

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A few years ago Tyll from Innerfidelity posted some measurements :

https://www.innerfidelity.com/headphone-amp-measurements

The Taurus MKII is probably not as audibly transparent as many amps sold nowadays, but is still a nice piece of kit.
my experience is quite contrary to that. I have MK2 version and its quite a transparent amp. I have gone through quite a few amps and this one is one of the finest I have owned.
 
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I have just found a shop to help me mod the defective alps pot into a dact, will see how it sound after I get it tomorrow
 

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