Tact 2.2 XP: which configuration to get?

Should have mentioned- If I were going to input anything digitally: I'd first have the "Digital Input Board Mod" done to the TacT by Aberdeen: (http://www.mauimods.com/TacTAudio.htm) Happy listening!

By the way: If you do go digital in with a DAC, try the Kimber Illuminations Orchid for your AES/EBU(minimum of 1 meter). They are fairly inexpensive used. You won't regret it!

If you're going to be using digital sources only and don't anticipate ever using an analogue source, the purely digital version of the 2.2XP is quite a bit less expensive than the fully loaded one with analogue inputs and outputs. But, unless you use one or more of TacT's own digital power amplifiers, you'll need analogue outputs. You can specify just about any combination of digital and analogue inputs and outputs, even down to digital and analogue outputs for the main channels but digital only for the subwoofers or vice versa. All the configuration choices are displayed at TacT's website. The fully loaded version with all inputs and outputs configured for both analogue and digital is expensive ($6,800 last time I checked).

Getting it (and thus your entire system) to sound just the way you want it is no cakewalk. After six years of ownership, I'm still making occasional fine but crucial adjustments to the tonal balance. The Auto Target Curve adjustment facility has made things much easier than trying to do it by way of the 12 band parametric equaliser, which can be truly a devil's playground. Of immense assistance is the table on page 11 of the user manual for the Behringer DEQ-1024 unit (readily available online), which is a guide to the subjective effects of making changes at different frequencies.

For fine tuning of the relatively crude adjustments that can be made by way of the Auto Target Curve Adjustment facility using the parametric equaliser, my advice is to adhere religiously (with the latter) to exactly the same frequency points ~ 32Hz, 64Hz, 125Hz, 250Hz, 500Hz, 1000Hz, 2000Hz, 4000Hz, 8000Hz, 16000Hz and 20000Hz. Ignore everything else in between and select strictly a one octave spread at each frequency point. This avoids overlap. Always aim for as smooth a curve as possible. Avoid big adjustments up or down at specific frequency points. If you feel the need to make such adjustments, then you haven't got the fundamentals right.

The 2.2XP can deliver exceptionally fine results, particularly in the bass, but you need to know what you're doing to achieve an acceptable tonal balance, particularly at the top end, which can easily sound harsh and excessively 'hot'. As many reviewers have pointed out, the guidance afforded by the user manual in this respect is sorely lacking, hence the Behringer manual is such a valuable adjunct.

Alternatively, look to the Lyngdorf RP-1, which fits only between an analogue pre and power amp (or in the tape loop of an integrated amp), but it does have an adjustable electronic crossover for 2+2 system configuration. It employs Lyngdorf's proprietary RC technology (RoomPerfect) and doesn't offer anything like the same degree of fine adjustability as the TacT (just 6 factory present algorithms, though replacement alternatives can apparently be downloaded online), but some people are of the opinion that this may very well be no bad thing. The neutral setting seems to satify most users. It also offers a choice between global and hot seat correction, which the TacT doesn't. Reports elsewhere generally seem to concur that it imposes little, if any, of its own sonic signature. So if you like your system the way it is and don't want to change it beyond correcting for otherwise ineradicable untoward room interactions, the Lyngdorf RP-1 may well be a more viable alternative.

My experience of living with the Tact RCS has, I have to say, been one of love and hate, though gradually I've managed to achieve a result which is these days more generally love than hate.

One other thing ~ The TacT RCS doesn't seem at all happy powered via the PurePower 2000 mains regenerator, unless you buffer the output of the PurePower with an isolation transformer such as those made by IsoTek or Isol-8. I don't know why, but I'm pretty certain that plugging the TacT directly into the PurePower was the cause of its CPU failing a year or so back and I had to ship it from England all the way back to Albuquerque to get it fixed at no small expense. Since then, though, it's been fine.

Conclusion? Try before you buy and don't expect a quick and easy path to audio nirvana. Patience is required.

My experience is with a 2.2X not the XP so there might be some differences. If I understand your post correctly you are considering using an internal TacT DAC card for your subs and an external DAC with volume control for your main speakers. This configuration will work but not exactly as you plan. The external DAC would not act as a preamp as far as volume control because it would not control the subs at the same time.

If you use one internal DAC and one external DAC you must balance the level between the subs and mains using either the volume control on the external DAC or any volume control the sub might offer. Then leave those settings alone and use the TacT volume control to control both mains and subs simultaneously.

You will not have to balance the two volume levels exactly. Just get them within normal operating ranges with some headroom to spare. The TacT measurement and correction process will set the final relative volume levels.

Here is a possible difference between 2.2X and 2.2XP: On the 2.2X DO NOT USE the menu "digital out" for the external DAC. You might damage something. The "digital out" setting is ONLY if you use TacT digital amps and need the TacT processor to control them. Don't worry about not selecting "digital out", you will still get a digital output and volume control but it will not be at a level that might damage your external DAC or speakers.

No, I wouldn't countenance using the TacT's internal D:AC for the sub's and a separate external one for the main speakers ~ that would be awfully complicated. The 2.2XP offers a complete 2+2 system configuration with its own A:DC and D:AC, though it hasn't occurred to me to try using the digital outputs with anything other than the TacT S2150. I had an S2150 briefly, but the result was horrible distortion, apparently due to my room demanding more RC than the combination could handle. This problem may have been fixed with TacT's latest software, though I managed to sell the S2150 to someone fairly local and he's delighted with it. I wish it had worked okay here, because it's an amazingly fine amplifier without that distortion problem (I fed the digital output of my transport directly into it). Now I use a pair of Bryston 7B-SST's and a Lyngdorf SDA-2175 driving a pair of TacT/Lyngdorf sub's. Main speakers are a pair of PMC IB2's (not the latest i versions ~ I couldn't afford £9,450 for a pair of those!)

The TacT 2.2XP is a magnificent, technology-packed product that offers what must be almost unrivalled fine-tuneability, but it's also extremely tricky to get exactly right. Many have tried and failed and even now I'm only just about there. The Lyngdorf is probably easier in that regard.