TACT RCS 2.0 Users Group

To [email protected],

If the placement of the bookshelf speakers have a restricted area you can be experimenting with placement, and I assume you are restricted, then I would be cautious about expecting too much.

At this point in my "Tact Adventure", if I were going to start with the restrictions you've defined, I would be sure to do two things:
1. Learn how to build a lot of custom target curves. Be very conservative in my movement of "frequency control points" and start with the flat Nearfield target curve. It is very easy to overdrive your speakers, and possibly do damage to them.
2. Be sure that the dealer I purchased it from had a clear 30 day refund policy he would honor. If not, buy direct from Tact and be sure they understand your challenge.

However, done correctly and with the investment of experimentation, I would be surprized if you did not experience a pleasant improvement.

To those who have the Sigtech and have directly compared it to the TACT, particularly Pls1, would you please give us a little more detail on what you sonically hear as an improvement in the Sigtech over the TACT? I'd appreciate it. Also, do you own the latest incarnation of the Sigtech, or the original version?

From the postings, it is obvious we all feel the user interface and software toolset needs dramatic improvement. Nice to see I'm not alone on that issue!

It is my understanding, TACT will have an upsampler upgrade available in the near future - this should address 1439bhr's valid comments. I'm hopeful that the upsampler will be executed with elegance. However, it will require a motherboard upgrade as well.

To my knowledge, the price for the full blow Sigtech with correction software, cal. mic, etc. is well over $10K.

For the difference in price between the TACT and the Sigtech, I've been willing to spend my evening hours working to get the Tact to give me the sound I want, albeit an unnecessarily frustrating adventure if the software interface and toolset was properly implemented.

I have the requirement in my thinking about room correction that I must have the ability to personally recalibrate the room and adjust as I change system components (try different tubes, pieces of gear in the signal path, etc.) and not have to call in the Sigtech engineer to do this for me at a cost of $400 a shot, or what ever they want to charge, every time.

I have also found that I personally like to build custom target curves for different types of music, tube sets, and even certain artist. The nine filters in the TACT are nice to have, and I use all nine!

Yeah, I'm a perfectionist who is fascinated with the scientific side of our obsession as much as the actual music. This is an interest that can literally blend the artistic and scientific appreciation elements of each of us. And that is one of the big reasons I'm personally insisting on having the tools under my control, not an outside engineer.

Naturally, this is not an approach for everyone. And I admit, there were moments in my first 100 hours with the TACT that I wished I could remove that facet of my personality! LOL!!

Drubin,

Let me address a few of the questions you raised based on my experience to date with the Tact:

Your questions 1 & 2;
First, as to the Tact supplied target curves - my experience was to throw all of them away except the Near Field (NF) curve. Also, ignore the placement of the speakers that Tact recommends and go with the formula that George Cardas recommends.

Then, using the NF curve, and ideally a NF listening position (measure the distance between your speakers and move your listening position out from the face of the speakers that distance) and begin to make very small incremental changes of just 1/2 db in the frequency areas you feel need modification.

A lot of trial and error is what worked for me. Actually, the target curve I ended up with that sounds the best took very little modification from the NF default curve, but the changes were effective.

Question 3;
I have not found any tricks to the measurement process. I place the mic exactly where the center of my head will be positioned while listening, then have my computer and myself on the floor behind the listening chair.
I have experimented with sitting in the listening position and quickly swinging the mic from where my left ear is to where my right ear is during the measurement cycle, but I did not like the results I got.

Question 4;
Next step to get more out of the system is, IMHO, to have all of us push Tact to release the enhanced software that they said they would in the last issue of Absolute Sound under the Manf. Comments area on the article Robert Green wrote reviewing the Tact with the Sigtech. That plus support for running the software on a laptop in 600x480 res would be nice.

Question 5;
Actually, I have found I do remeasure after changing any element in the system. Now, bare in mind, I'm the Poster Child for the Anil Retentive of North America, but I can see in the measurement graph and hear a difference. In my experience it is worth the extra effort.

I have recently been testing different digital cables and analog interconnects and found it necessary to remeasure and reload the target curves to get the best sound from my system.

In closing, I would like to suggest that each of us begin pushing Tact to satisfy some of the user needs that this thread has brought to light. Collectively we have a lot more clout than any one of us does alone.