TacT TCS MK III

[audioguy]

My current set of audio components to drive my 2 channel and HT system consists of a Jeff Rowland preamp, a TacT 2.2XP (used for 2 channel only), an Integra SSP, an Audyssey SubEQ to control my 4 subs and a QSC DSP30 that provides flexibility in having different bass volume for different kinds of movies. The cabling for this 5 piece set of hardware looks something like a bad Los Angeles interchange. In fact, some of it needs to be switched when I change from 2 channel to movies and back.

I finally figured out that a TacT TCS Mk III will allow me to do what all of the 5 pieces of equipment will do but in one box ( and will require no cable swithcing), so I have one on order.

Stay tuned.

 

[amirm]

Great! I have the MK II and stuck with old software and no support options . And of course, pain in the neck as far as integration without HDMI that MK III has.

 

[Ron Party]

So you bit the bullet. Congrats. I eagerly look forward to your reports. Do you have an ETA?

 

[RUR]

I finally figured out that a TacT TCS Mk III will allow me to do what all of the 5 pieces of equipment will do but in one box ( and will require no cable swithcing), so I have one on order.

Stay tuned.

What lead time are they quoting? As Tom mentioned and you're probably aware, lots of rumblings recently in the community caused by lack of communication from Boz. That, plus Amir and others' support issues worry me.

 

[audioguy]

So you bit the bullet. Congrats. I eagerly look forward to your reports. Do you have an ETA?

ETA? If that means "Estimated Time of Anticipation", that starts today. If it means, "Estimated Time of Arrival" that means 'stay tuned'. I am supposed to call next week (or get a call from them) on an ETA. BUT, it was strongly suggested that I NOT get rid of my 2.2XP YET!

 

[audioguy]

What lead time are they quoting? As Tom mentioned and you're probably aware, lots of rumblings recently in the community caused by lack of communication from Boz. That, plus Amir and others' support issues worry me.

For lead times, stay tuned. For support (or lack of it), that is a serious potential issue, but, except for a few really big audio companies, there is a fairly high level of risk everytime you purchase high end audio gear. The vast majotity of audio companies are, at best, "garage shop" enterprises. My old company, SigTech, went south and left a lot of users with great looking doorstops. My speakers are from a very small company that, while the owner is young, there is no guaratnee he will be alive next week. And since some of his drivers are proprietary and the DSP engines in his amps are custom, I could be left hanging there as well. If I want to completely reduce risk, I need to buy Bose, Sony, etc.

That said, I was an owner of a Tact 2.0 for over 10 years and it never hiccuped!

I do not want to make light of your questions but the TCS is (for me) the best solution, by far, that will provide a state of the art front end digital preamp, as well as surround sound and room correction processing. And while not inexpensive, it's not much more than the sum of all of the stuff it will replace. If there were another option that was as technically correct for my application AND was from a more substantive and reliable company, I would have considered that option as well. Some of the other high end SSP's lack the feature set necessary to deal with a configuration like mine with the flexibility that the TacT possesses.

If this product lasts as long as the 2.0, I will be more than old enough to not care any longer. I can only keep my fingers crossed!!

 

[MylesBAstor]

For lead times, stay tuned. For support (or lack of it), that is a serious potential issue, but, except for a few really big audio companies, there is a fairly high level of risk everytime you purchase high end audio gear. The vast majotity of audio companies are, at best, "garage shop" enterprises. My old company, SigTech, went south and left a lot of users with great looking doorstops. My speakers are from a very small company that, while the owner is young, there is no guaratnee he will be alive next week. And since some of his drivers are proprietary and the DSP engines in his amps are custom, I could be left hanging there as well. If I want to completely reduce risk, I need to buy Bose, Sony, etc.

That said, I was an owner of a Tact 2.0 for over 10 years and it never hiccuped!

I do not want to make light of your questions but the TCS is (for me) the best solution, by far, that will provide a state of the art front end digital preamp, as well as surround sound and room correction processing. And while not inexpensive, it's not much more than the sum of all of the stuff it will replace. If there were another option that was as technically correct for my application AND was from a more substantive and reliable company, I would have considered that option as well. Some of the other high end SSP's lack the feature set necessary to deal with a configuration like mine with the flexibility that the TacT possesses.

If this product lasts as long as the 2.0, I will be more than old enough to not care any longer. I can only keep my fingers crossed!!

OTOH the simpler the design, the easier it will be to repair if needed

 

[amirm]

My TacT actually has a very modular design. That is how I repaired the two non-working rear channels. I swapped that board for the aux channels and got my unit working even though Boz wouldn't help me. In some sense, the unit came with extra parts .

Unfortunately, the unit now goes into a mode by itself where it sends out awful static randomly so I had to pull the unit out and it is sitting there eating dust. My replacement is to try the Anthem room correction on my current D2. Will be interesting to see how well it does.

 

[audioguy]

I guess the rule applies with the TCS that the more flexibility you get, the more complex it becomes. I'm pretty sure that if I read long enough, I will be able to get this thing to cook me breakfast!

One of the interesting features is the mixer function that allows you to take any input signal and route it to any output device at any specified level. This is how you can assign the LFE signal to as many subs as you wish.

And I thought screwing around on the 2.2XP with target curves for the left and right channel could chew up some time --- how about 12 channels (though I'm only connected to 7 of them). There are simply not enough hours in a day ---

I'm not prepared to make any comments sonically for HT yet as I'm still messing around with just two channels. But given that I can literally match all channels frequency response within parts of a db, I'm pretty sure the envelopment of this thing will be dramatic (at least that's what I'm hoping given the financial and time investment I'm making). But the two channel functionality of Tact is required in my configuration and that sounds just fine, thank you very much.

It turns out that the DACs that are in my unit were over-driving the amps in the Catalysts but fortunately, the Catalysts have a control to deal with that

Stay tuned !! (or not)

 

[RUR]

And I thought screwing around on the 2.2XP with target curves for the left and right channel could chew up some time --- how about 12 channels (though I'm only connected to 7 of them). There are simply not enough hours in a day ---

Chuck, are you actually using different curves for each channel? What's the advantage?

I've never monkeyed with it in my 2 channel setup as I've never understood why different L and R curves would make sense. :-(

 

[amirm]

Indeed. When I got my multichannel tact, I spent a lot of time with 2-channel listening. Then I put a movie in there and I was startled what it did for positioning of effects and wonderful smoothness it brought to everything, including taming the sub. With 2-channel I would still find fault with it from time to time but never with movies.

The mixer does increase complexity. Many times the device acts on me and I find out it was due to something I did to the mixer.

 

[audioguy]

I've given up on the TCS and going back to the 2.2XP. The level of complexity was WAY more than I wanted to deal with, and while I was finally figuring them out, my unit has some issues that required that I send it back to get them updated, and I did not want to go through all of that --- and now I need to find a surround processor that will allow you to take the LFE channel and send it to the left and right channel. I think either OB or Marty does that and I need to find out what processor they are using.

Anyone? I am not interested in spending a lot of money since (to my ears) the Integra I had was more than satisfactory.

 

[audioguy]

Problem solved. My Onkyo does exactly what I needed. Total extra cost? ZERO !! (how many times do you get to say THAT in this hobby?)

 

[Steve williams]

Hi Chuck

I use a Lexicon MC12HD B

 

[audioguy]

Problem solved. My Onkyo does exactly what I needed. Total extra cost? ZERO !! (how many times do you get to say THAT in this hobby?)

Problem NOT solved. Back to square one I guess.

 

[RBFC]

Problem NOT solved. Back to square one I guess.

What happened? Since I'm interested in moving up to a new preamp/processor at some point, I'd wonder what the Onkyo didn't do and how you'll approach the next steps.

Lee

 

[audioguy]

My bad! I re calibrated my mains and subs using my TacT 2.2 XP and then re-ran Audyssey Pro on my Onkyo (telling it I had no sub) and all is well in the Universe. The system does route the LFE to the front speakers.

I would still like to find a way to use the Audyssey SubEQ just when playing movies but that means physically swapping cables. But in the mean time, I can actually watch movies again!!