After seven years of frustration and interminable fiddling about, I finally sold my 2.2XP to the same guy who bought my S2150. Using it in pure digital mode, he's delighted with it but, for me, although there were spells when I felt I was getting close to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, there were an awful lot of other times when I hated the thing.
When I bought the S2150 three years ago, I installed it and undertook a fresh RC calibration. Initially, it sounded wonderful, but then a horrible digital-sounding distortion started to creep in and got steadily worse. I phoned TacT to try to find out if they knew what the problem could be but Boz couldn't explain it. Eventually, he suggested that the only thing to do would be to return it to him (from the UK) for investigation. The results were that whilst it was functioning perfectly and, at the factory, creating RC files without distortion, with the file created in my room, the distortion was readily apparent. The conclusion was that the software in my 2.2 just couldn't cope with the degree of RC required in my particular room ~ which needs it but it isn't what you'd call an acoustic nightmare. So Boz downloaded their very latest software and returned the unit, but to no avail. The distortion was still there with any newly created RC file. So I had a (digital input only) S2150 that I couldn't use with my 2.2 (in my room), no offer from TacT of a refund and they didn't even refund the cost I'd incurred to ship my 2.2 back to the factory for investigation. This was on top of an earlier return for the replacement of a failed CPU. Given that TacT no longer has any representation in the UK, I was very fortunate to find a buyer for my S2150 (which, when it's working right, is an astoundingly good amp for the money), someone who lives not far from me as well.
Then a pair of virtually new PMC IB2 speakers came up at a once-in-a-lifetime price, so I bought them and, eventually, a pair of Bryston 7B-SST power amp's (nothing less, really, will do). The pairing is, as you'd expect, excellent but with the drawback of revealing the TacT 2.2's tendency to sound nastily digital in the midrange. No matter what I did, I just couldn't quite eliminate it.
Then the 2.2 started playing up. It seemed to drift off-colour for no apparent reason. It'd be okay one day but awful the next. And, on top of that, every time I created a new RC file, the resulting frequency balance would be severely tilted up either in the bass or in the treble. By way of a great deal of pretty gross adjustments to the parametric equaliser, I was able to get it vaguely near to neutral, but it never sounded right.
Buying a PurePower 2000i mains regenerator (eliminating the effects of varying mains quality) helped to an extent, but the system still lacked freshness, transparency and, above all else, musicality. By now, after more than six years I was beginning to grow seriously tired of it and began laying my plans to replace it, starting with the acquisition of an old but still very good Trichord Pulsar D:AC (with its optional outboard PSU for the analogue stages) for just £220 ~ for a unit of such quality, a steal.
Then, a virtually new Bryston BP26 pre-amp came up on eBay at less than half RRP. Okay, I would have preferred it in black (to match my 7B's) rather than silver, but for that kind of saving, I wasn't going to get too hung up about it.
Convinced that my PMC IB2's would need RC at least as much as any other speakers I'd ever owned, all that remained now was to save up for a Lyngdorf RP-1 RC unit. The Lyngdorf may not offer anything like the same degree of user adjustability as the TacT 2.2, though it does offer a choice of six factory preset voicings, it includes a crossover so I'd still be able to use my TacT/Lyngdorf subwoofers (driven by a Lyngdorf SDA-2175) and everyone says its sound is mellower than that of the TacT.
Anyway, once the Bryston pre-amp arrived, I decided to hook it up just to make sure it was fully functioning, expecting then to be putting it back in its box for however long it might take to get the money together for the Lyngdorf. But, to my great surprise, the bass was amazingly good, right from the word go. Most unexpected.
Some system tuning was still required, though, by way of a new digital lead between the CD transport and the D:AC (after experiments with various budget cables, I eventually ended up with one kindly supplied FOC by PMC) and new pre to power interconnects, for which the logical choice was a very inexpensive balanced Van Damme pair, as recommended by PMC (who import Bryston into the UK). After nearly 20 years, I shall probably sell my venerable Kimber KCAG's. The only interconnects I've ever had here that sounded better were the Abbey Road silver ones, but they're £500 for a metre pair and I'm just not into spending that kind of money on wires any more. The Van Dammes are virtually as good at just 4.5% of the price of a pair of Abbey Roads.
So now, to my very great surprise, it's turned out that with the right system for my room (and I never expected a pair of speakers such as PMC IB2's, with their exceptional bass, to constitute a part of such a system) I don't actually need RC after all.
All the fiddling and fretting and general neurosis that the TacT engenders are behind me. The guy in Bath who bought my (100% digital) S2150 also bought my 2.2XP and tells me he's delighted with it. Now, I just put on any CD at any time of the day or night, any day of the week and, whilst not every single one sounds magical, none sounds horrible. Those that don't sound magical I simply ascribe to them being less than stellar recordings instead of reaching for the remote control and effecting yet more tweaks to the parametric equaliser.
Over the seven years I lived with the TacT 2.2 I had some good times with it, to be sure. But I had an awful lot more bad times and, now it's gone to a good home, I'm enjoying the full spectrum of my CD collection without forever fretting about the way the system sounds. The pot of gold at the end of the TacT rainbow is what you're always after with the 2.2. Heaven knows I tried long enough and hard enough to get to it, but ultimately I couldn't. Maybe if I'd changed my digital and analogue interconnects instead of staying slavishly loyal to my Kimber KCAG's and thinking that all my system's shortcomings could be fixed by way of the TacT's parametric equaliser, I'd have got better results. But that's all history now.
So there you have it ~ the story of my seven years (or, at least, the last few of them) of living with and finally giving up on the TacT 2.2XP. Then again, other users may have had different experiences. The Aberdeen Components upgrades to its power supply (the standard one is a low cost switch-mode supply) and D:AC are reportedly beneficial but not cheap and for me, living as I do in the UK, not a viable proposition. Live long and prosper brothers.
