Category: Preamps
I've owned my Tact 2.2x for 4 years now, and thought I'd communicate some impressions of it in my system. At first I used it stock, and with the internal DAC, without subs--then with other DACs, including Tact's 2150, with subs, and for the last two years with the Aberdeen signature power supply.
I have a dedicated audio/video room, and had experimented with room treatments form Argent, Room tunes and Echo Busters. They all helped, but I couldn't get used to the impression that the mids of my speakers were over-ripe (Talon Khorus at the time) muddy and obscured by excessive bass nodes. The room treatments helped. Cable and amp changes helped. The Tact, however, was a revelation. Everything opened up and I felt I was hearing musicians playing in my room.
Measurements showed huge deviations from flat in the bass range (as much as 30dB). My thought at the time was that it seemed a blanket had been removed from covering the speakers. Increases in clarity, low-level detail, bass detail, dynamics, soundstage, openess---everything just sounded better. I've since changed to line array spekers with corner subs, and eliminated most of my room treatments (still have a couple of bass busters and roomtunes).
The line arrays load the room better, but still benefit from the room correction. I find very little loss in transparency using the digital processing (if any). The gains in clarity are astounding. Probably the most significant improvement is bass detail and clarity. Using two subs in the corners allows them to be palced where they sound best, and the speakers where they sound best (7 feet into the room) and the Tact phase and time aligns them to integrate seamlessly.
The stock DAC card is good but a little to the ruthlessly revealing side of the spectrum. My Audio Logic DAC was significantly better, as is the DAC in the Tact 2150. I now use the internal DAC to power the subs. The Aberdeen PS upgrade is worthwhile. It lowers the noise floor and adds to the delicacy of the musical presentation.
Some will prefer the warmth of tube preamps, and I have no qualms with that. I've used tube preamps before and have used tube DACs with the Tact, and appreciate some extra presence and warmth. That said, the added detail and clarity the Tact provides is more meaningful to me than the extra warmth.
It's an expensive piece of equipment, and not for everyone. But it does something few other products can do---it minimizes the effect of the room, and that provides a positive influence on the musical getalt that no other component change (and I've changed a lot) has been able to achieve. And it mates incredibly well with the Tact DAC/amp, which allows the signal to remain in the digital domain all the way to the speaker.
Highly recommended!
Associated gear Click to view my Virtual System
