TACT RCS 2.0 Users Group


I've recently purchased the TACT RCS 2.0 unit. As I've been wrestling with getting the optimum performance out of it, I keep thinking there must be other owners out there that have ideas to share, as well as those who could benefit from what I've learned.

I was hoping this thread would provide a forum to introduce us to each other.

Anyone interested in sharing what you've learned?

I for one have found the unit difficult to get a true grasp of how to optimise, but once learned, it has produced the best sound of any component I've ever added to my system. My system currently consists of a Sony SCD1 to the TACT 2.0 RCS with internal DAC and D/A converter. Signal is then fed from the TACT in analog format to my Art Audio Jota and then to the Avantgarde Duo Hornspeakers.
I'll start by stating I've found the suggestions in the TACT documentation for speaker placement to be contra to good sound. I've gotten the best results by using George Cardas's Near Field logic and using the TACT Nearfield target curve as the beginning point to custom build my personal target curves.

This resulted in a sound stage this is awesome and the clarity of the frequencies is without compare in my experience.

However, it took over 100 hours of experimentation to reach this result - a lot of lessons learned. At this point, I feel I know just enough to be dangerous!
tao
Actually, I will be using a Tact RCS 2.0 AD with an external DAC (Sonic Frontiers Processor 3). This means that all volume control will be through the Tact. I spoke to Tact yesterday and they said that they add bits so that lowering the volume does not affect things. However, this is also what Wadia says and many owners feel that Wadias sound OPTIMAL over a narrow volume range.
If you can, hang on to your BAT preamp for a while and try it in and out of the system, see what you think.
I plan on hanging on to the BAT until I'm sure the Tact (delivered Weds.) works well in my system. However, keeping both is a pricey propostition when the costs of isolation, interconnect, digital and power cables is factored in.

I'm very happy with my system right now. I have a relatively large room so room interactions may not be hurting my sound. However, I wanted to see what all the hubub on the Tact is about. I'm also a techno dweeb so this is right up my alley.
Has anyone compared other Analog to Digital converters with the Tact on-board unit, e.g. Wadia 150 or dCS? I just bought a unit with the ADC, but want to know if it would be worth upgrading to an outboard ADC since I'll be feeding in a pretty good analog front end.
As per above, I compared the Tact to outboard DAC's and it isn't as good. The digital volume control is best over a limited range. I use a shunt to ground volume control in my monoblocks to allow for setting the output from the digital volume control in the Z-Systems (which has a better digital volume control than the Tact) to its best range.