Update - TacT 2.0 Room Correction System


As promised I am reporting back on the TacT 2.0 RCS that some of you asked about last month. I have now enjoyed it for about 6 weeks. My system consists of Magnepan 3.6 speakers currently driven by Bryston 7B-ST amps. The TacT is operating as a pre-amp & RCS. I have not tried it with other high end gear as "just" a digital room correction system. I hope to have time to do that in the future. I intend to try it with the AR Ref. 2 pre-amp and will let you know the changes in the sound if there is an interest. Now,back to the RSC. I probably have one of the worst set-ups for the MG 3.6 as the system is in a large office with lots of furniture but still a very live room. Without the RSC the music sounds very good but not great (about like it sounds in the audio stores where I have auditioned the speakers). With the RSC the music is transformed in a way that brings a clarity of soundstage I have never experienced. Perhaps many of you have accomplished similar feats with proper set-up and accoustical treatment. I never have been able to accomplish anything close to what this piece will do. Most times it makes the music sound like a live performance. It is simply uncanny. The one variation I have made to the recommendations in the instructions is that TacT suggests you place your speakers closer to the wall when using the system to reinforce the bass. The "bad" aspects that would normally occur are supposedly corrected by the RCS. NOT WITH THE MAGGIES! The speakers vibrated too much when close to the walls. I suppose that because they are bi-polar panels there is just too much sound bouncing off the walls and back into the panels to place them that close to the wall. So I put them where I normally would at about 3 feet out from the walls and everything went quite well from there on. I have convinced a few friends to get the TacT 2.0 RCS for a trial directly from TacT. I don't know anyone who has sent it back after hearing it in their system. If anyone has tried the TacT as a Room Correction System with their pre-amp I would appreciate information on how it affects the sonic qualities of the pre-amp. I am trying new cables this week (Quattro Fil interconnects & SPM speaker cable) and I am interested to hear how the sound will be affected. Happy listening, Jim
jlawyeratlldd
Hi Hexenboden. I will try to complete my answer to your fine question. My office is where my rig is set up. It is about 20 ft by 14 ft with suspended ceilings. There are windows on one long wall and the other 3 are typical industrial (thin plasterboard supported by flimsy metal studs with insulation between the walls). These walls are not good for base support. The floor is carpet over pad over concrete. There are assorted rugs on the carpet. The furniture is mostly non-absorbent (ie. desk and mostly leather). The speakers are on one of the 14 ft wallls. The sound without the RCS sounded good from the speakers (compared to other speakers I have owned and played in this room). However, I could never figure out what this soundstage was that people were writing about. I thought that my ear just didn't pick up the distinctions of the directionality of the musicians in space. The sound seems to just come from everywhere like in a car that has a fine stereo system. I had read that the Maggies had a good sound stage. I really couldn't hear it at the dealer's store either but I had hopes that I could set it up in my office in a way that there might be a sound stage. I had no luck before the TacT unit became part of my system. When I plug the Tact unit into my system and ran the simple program, everything changed. It was quite amazing to me. All of a sudden the music was no longer comming from everywhere. You could almost see the musical instruments played from a specific place in front of you. I could hear detail in the music I had never heard before. Using the #1 algorithm of the program gave me the best results. The highs were perfect to my ear. The brightness common the the Maggies was gone. The bass was tight and clear. There was no mush or echo or fatness to the bass. It quickly became clear how much of the sound was comming from room reflections. It was all improvement and sounded live. I wish I could describe it better but that is all I can come up with now. Because this RCS so effectively corrects the problems it is designed to fix, I believe that the bigger the problem; the worse the accoustics of the room; the greater the benefit. That has been my experience anyway. I have now put the Quattro Fil interconnects and SPM speaker wires into the system. They also made a dramatic and welcome improvement. Now there is even more detail. These are truly wonderful cables and well worth the exorbitant cost. I may be keeping my car a few years longer to pay for them but I feel it was a good trade off. I have not yet recalibrated the TacT system with the new cables as they are not burned in yet. I am interested to see if the recalibration changes the sound. All The Best. Jim
Hi Everybody, I will try to answer each question. First, thanks Rayd for the idea to use a different memory choice for the new cables. I should then be able to see if in fact there is much audible difference by switching between the memory settings. Second, I just put the Brystons in the system last week so they are not broken in. I did notice a significant increase in the quality of the bass and mid bass with these amps compared to the CJ 2100 (100 watt) amp that I was using. I will reserve final judgment till the amps are broken in. However my first impression is quite positive. I have not heard the CAT Ultimate so I have no reference of comparison with that. If you decide on the 7B-ST I can tell you that I bought them new for $3500 on Ebay. I can provide the seller if you like. With regard to poor acoustics and other room treatments I have good news. TacT recommends NO other room treatment as that interferes with the job that the Tact performs. I know that my room is horrible and it worked wonders without any other treatment. Try one out on their 30 day trial and see what you think. Happy Holidays, Jim
Some more color on room characteristics and speaker placement wold be helpful. It would b einteresting to try to determine how much of a correction, and what sort of correction, your room needs. I have a very poor room, with large reflective surfaces (glass) but am unsure whether the TACT will be able to correct its gross errors.
Hi, I have a question that if I buy the Tat2.0 room correction system, do I need another room treatment like Tube trap, sound pannels...ect. I can use the money that I'm going to buy room treatment for the Tat2.0 if I don't need other room treatments. Thanks DT
I should elucidate; we have similar systems: Maggie 3.6, CAT Ultimate, Nordost SPM and Quattro Fils, so I'm wondering if you are satisifed with the 7bsts.
Jim, I have been using a full blown (with all possible analog and digital inputs and outputs)TacT RCS 2.0 as both pre-amp and room correction for over a year. This unit has made quite a differnce in what I hear and how I listen. I, too, am "interested" in hearing the the RCS 2.0 as a room correction unit with a separate pre-amp. One reason for doing this is to "just check it out" and the second reason is because the RCS 2.0 does not have tape ins or outs. If you connect a record device (MiniDisc, CD recorder, etc.)to one of the outputs, you cannot adjust the listening level without affecting the recording level. Maybe TacT will issue an upgrade to solve this problem. Then again, maybe I am the only person who wants this feature. One final tought, Jim. If you try new cables, go through a room correction process and enter this set-up as one of the nine memories. You will then have different set-ups for the different systems you use (different cables create a different system). Give us an update again. What a great hobby!!
Jim, Thanks for the update, I have been considering it for the last few weeks. My local dealer promised to come and install it in my system this weekend. I will let you know how it sounds with my Sonic Frontiers Line 3. Mohamed