TACT RCS 2.0 Users Group

I don't know the recordings you refer to and I can't hear your room but there are several things that COULD be going on. I say could because it would take careful measurement and listening to determine it. The most general reason is that those recordings with the most improvement have sensitive musical info at the frequencies that your room and/or speakers are most "off" combined with placement of those instruments on the left to right soundstage so that the effect of the room interactions are most noticeable. Also, the musical info is not buried in the mix. I will use an example from my situation with a Sigtech and Dunlavy V's. I have asymmetric bass response in several narrow bands starting at 80 and ending around 200hz due to a large Middle Eastern style arched door in the plaster wall. If I listen to a well-recorded string quartet with the cello in its normal position on the right of the sound stage the cello sounds thin and hazy. Reverse the channels and the quartet sound fine. Kick in the Sigtech and it sounds fine. Play a quartet recording with an extra wide soundstage or a tight soundstage and the effect almost goes away. Second possibility, you may have a general rise in response from the lower midrange (room or speaker). Recordings mixed with a similar rise in response (not uncommon with pop and rock) will sound bad. Recordings without the rise will sound OK. Both will sound better with the DSP turned on and correcting for that rise. These are the real effects I've heard and measured. Of course this may have nothing to do with your specific situation. and correcting for that rise.
One simple test is to play the recordings in question in mono or on headphones and note the difference.

Guys, great post and feedback! I've been considering buying a TacT and this is great information. Thanks!

In the Users Group spirit of this topic, let me pose a few questions to those with some experience under their belts. As a new TacT user, I'm bursting with questions.

1. Which of the taget curves have you found most to your liking?

2. Are you finding that the supplied target curves do the job, or have you ended up editing to make one of your own creation?

3. Are there any tricks to the measurement process that users should know about?

4. It's very easy to take a measurement and fit a curve. What do you recommend as the next step or steps to get more out of the system?

5. Do you find you need to re-measure every time you try a new component, such as an interconnect, for example? (I wonder what the TacT can teach us about the nature of component differences.)

I'll stop there. I think a true on-line users group would be an excellent idea.

Dan

For any DSP room correction system:

For 5: Remeasure only when things that impact the time behavior or gross frequency behaviours of your system change. That includes new speakers, new pieces of furniture, moving your speakers, moving your furniture, or moving your listening position.

For 4: the answer should be to take a true time domain measurement after each curve fit to see that you actually achieved your desired response but that is the limitation discussed above.

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.