"Well, I'm back." Samwise Gamgee to Rosie at the end of The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkein.
It has been about a year since I've applied equalization in my main system. I was so enthralled with the sound of the PS Audio Perfect Wave equipment I have been using that I happily listened around the lumps and dips in response for many months, rather than give up the warm, pristine sound of that duo by interjecting something so "gauche" as my stock TacT RCS 2.2XP AAA into the signal path just to flatten the response.
During this period I was using my TacT only as an analog-to-digital converter for necessarily analog sources such as the decoded HDCDs and SACD layers of disks, items which my PS Audio Perfect Wave transport will not handle at all (SACD layers of discs) or at least not handle properly (HDCD-encoded disks). And since the PS Audio Dynamic Duo has no A/D converter at all under the hood, sources such as the analog output from my old Sony DirecTV box which I use to play XM satellite radio stations had to be fed into the analog inputs of the TacT for conversion to a digital signal which the PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC could handle. I found that the TacT's A/D output sounded best when feeding a 24/96 waveform from its digital outputs into the PS DAC, so that's what I did.
But, recently I found myself listening less and realized that I've become a bit tired of listening around frequency response hills and dales. What to do?
Initially I seriously considered converting the whole system to a surround system, perhaps using the Arcam AVR-600 which has been so extolled for great sound by J. Peter Moncrieff in IAR and Wide Screen Review. I always have been seeking greater envelopment and a decent surround system certainly does that trick better than any two-channel system ever will. If you doubt that, you've either been brainwashed by the two-channel troop or have never heard a half-way decent 7.1 surround system. I have a half-way decent surround system in my basement home theater just a few steps from my audio-only reference room. My extreme-near-field two-channel set up conjures the envelopment illusion better than any two-channel rig I've ever heard, so I think I know whereof I speak.
But I read about a lot of problems with the Arcam's firmware from users. And I know that it doesn't handle HDCD decoding or SACD in native mode either. Plus, its equalization system is not even up to the Audyssey level of quality and is no more flexible. Then there was the fact that I really wasn't sure whether even I would want to deal with being surrounded at close range by six or seven large speakers in a room the size of mine. Thus, in the end, I decided to stick with two-channel . . . at least for one more go-round of upgrades.
But I did not want to go back to the somewhat sterile and a bit bright sound of my stock TacT 2.2XP AAA feeding my Bryston 7B-SST amps. I considered re-acquiring a 31-band dual-channel analog graphic equalizer which could be inserted in my chain after the PS DAC's analog output. I did that back in my Orion days, feeding my amps and subs from the balanced analog output of a professional audio EQ unit. I used both the Rane DEQ-60L and the Audient ASP231 in this configuration and at least the Audient was very transparent.
On the other hand, graphic EQs are a pain to adjust. The Rane is the easiest of the bunch by far, but I did not cotton to its sound the last time around. And while adjusting a graphic equalizer to meet a "target" curve would be a lot easier this time around now that I have some decent measuring equipment (Liberty's SynRTA), it would still be inconvenient compared to something like the TacT system.
Parametrics are at least as difficult to adjust, I find. The Rives PARC (the first equalizer I used with my Harbeth M40s) is transparent, but limited in range to 350 Hz and below and sometimes room effects rear their heads above that frequency.
The Audyssey system in its best stand-alone variety offers sufficient response control full range, but has very little flexibility or choice in target curves. Ditto for the "automatic" room correction devices like Lyngdorf's Room Perfect.
What I wanted was a unit with a lot of EQ flexibility, one which would easily allow construction of custom target curves to suit my ears or various recordings. Units from Copland, DEQX, and Behringer were possibilities. And of course there is the TacT RCS, an incredibly flexible unit whose software I long ago mastered. If only the TacT had sound quality as good as the PS Audio Perfect Wave duo . . . .
And that, folks, is what led me to take the plunge and order up a brand-new latest edition TacT RCS 2.2XP AAA modified or enhanced by Anthony Padilla of MauiMods/Aberdeen Components. Anthony's work is universally admired by TacT owners.
I have only had the new TacT for three days now. But I knew from first fire-up that this was going to be really special. Here's what I told Anthony the day after I took my first listen:
Anthony also told me that my unit has the latest Mk3 revised DSP Board and of course the Burr-Brown ASCR chip, rather than the old Analog Devices one.
Last night I measured the system (using my LinearX M31 calibrated microphone with its individual calibration curve) for the first time with the new unit, played with some target curves, inserted the proper delay for the main speakers, etc. All the familiar TacT RCS functions seen to work as reliably as they did on my old TacT. I'm using the Beta V 1.0x version of the TacT software, as before.
The TacT program works fine with my new Windows 7 operating system; the last time I used the TacT software I was running XP. If you get error messages using Windows 7 almost every time you try to enter a command, as I was at first, that is not the TacT program misbehaving. It is a Windows 7 security setting problem. In Windows Explorer, right-click on the TacT program folder, select Properties and Security. Then give yourself "Full Control" over this program. The error messages should then vanish; at least they did for me.
What's not perfect about the new TacT? Well, I'm sure I'll find a sonic something to complain about eventually. But, sonics aside, I have already suggested to Anthony and Boz that TacT, if possible, should incorporate the equivalent of a dual-channel, 31-band 1/3-octave graphic equalizer into the TacT software. I know, I know--we already have the "more sophisticated" RCS and DRC programs, plus automatic correction and 12-band parametric EQ available.
But some 1984 auditory research by one Henrik Staffelt of the Danish Technical University apparently suggests that 1/3-octave bands are "it" as far as determining the timbre of what we hear. Robert E. Greene has been talking about this research on his forum of late.
Based on my playing around with such graphic equalizers over the years, I also recommended that if TacT adds this, the 1/3-octave filters should be given the characteristics of what Rane calls "Perfect Q" so that adjacent EQ bands don't interact much, as in their DEQ-60L product. See:
http://www.rane.com/note154.html
"Perfect Q" makes such an equalizer much simpler to adjust. With "Perfect Q," a screen display of the 1/3-octave sliders would basically be WYSIWYG-- what-you-see-is-what-you-get--in terms of the alterations you make in frequency response. All other 1/3-octave units are a pain to adjust since there is considerable overlap and interaction between adjacent (and even two-away) bands.
Anthony really liked my graphic EQ suggestion and will pass it on to Boz. Hopefully, Boz will find a way to make it happen.
I'll have more to say later, and I'll include a photo or two of the inside of the box, showing Anthony's refinements versus my old stock version.
It has been about a year since I've applied equalization in my main system. I was so enthralled with the sound of the PS Audio Perfect Wave equipment I have been using that I happily listened around the lumps and dips in response for many months, rather than give up the warm, pristine sound of that duo by interjecting something so "gauche" as my stock TacT RCS 2.2XP AAA into the signal path just to flatten the response.
During this period I was using my TacT only as an analog-to-digital converter for necessarily analog sources such as the decoded HDCDs and SACD layers of disks, items which my PS Audio Perfect Wave transport will not handle at all (SACD layers of discs) or at least not handle properly (HDCD-encoded disks). And since the PS Audio Dynamic Duo has no A/D converter at all under the hood, sources such as the analog output from my old Sony DirecTV box which I use to play XM satellite radio stations had to be fed into the analog inputs of the TacT for conversion to a digital signal which the PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC could handle. I found that the TacT's A/D output sounded best when feeding a 24/96 waveform from its digital outputs into the PS DAC, so that's what I did.
But, recently I found myself listening less and realized that I've become a bit tired of listening around frequency response hills and dales. What to do?
Initially I seriously considered converting the whole system to a surround system, perhaps using the Arcam AVR-600 which has been so extolled for great sound by J. Peter Moncrieff in IAR and Wide Screen Review. I always have been seeking greater envelopment and a decent surround system certainly does that trick better than any two-channel system ever will. If you doubt that, you've either been brainwashed by the two-channel troop or have never heard a half-way decent 7.1 surround system. I have a half-way decent surround system in my basement home theater just a few steps from my audio-only reference room. My extreme-near-field two-channel set up conjures the envelopment illusion better than any two-channel rig I've ever heard, so I think I know whereof I speak.
But I read about a lot of problems with the Arcam's firmware from users. And I know that it doesn't handle HDCD decoding or SACD in native mode either. Plus, its equalization system is not even up to the Audyssey level of quality and is no more flexible. Then there was the fact that I really wasn't sure whether even I would want to deal with being surrounded at close range by six or seven large speakers in a room the size of mine. Thus, in the end, I decided to stick with two-channel . . . at least for one more go-round of upgrades.
But I did not want to go back to the somewhat sterile and a bit bright sound of my stock TacT 2.2XP AAA feeding my Bryston 7B-SST amps. I considered re-acquiring a 31-band dual-channel analog graphic equalizer which could be inserted in my chain after the PS DAC's analog output. I did that back in my Orion days, feeding my amps and subs from the balanced analog output of a professional audio EQ unit. I used both the Rane DEQ-60L and the Audient ASP231 in this configuration and at least the Audient was very transparent.
On the other hand, graphic EQs are a pain to adjust. The Rane is the easiest of the bunch by far, but I did not cotton to its sound the last time around. And while adjusting a graphic equalizer to meet a "target" curve would be a lot easier this time around now that I have some decent measuring equipment (Liberty's SynRTA), it would still be inconvenient compared to something like the TacT system.
Parametrics are at least as difficult to adjust, I find. The Rives PARC (the first equalizer I used with my Harbeth M40s) is transparent, but limited in range to 350 Hz and below and sometimes room effects rear their heads above that frequency.
The Audyssey system in its best stand-alone variety offers sufficient response control full range, but has very little flexibility or choice in target curves. Ditto for the "automatic" room correction devices like Lyngdorf's Room Perfect.
What I wanted was a unit with a lot of EQ flexibility, one which would easily allow construction of custom target curves to suit my ears or various recordings. Units from Copland, DEQX, and Behringer were possibilities. And of course there is the TacT RCS, an incredibly flexible unit whose software I long ago mastered. If only the TacT had sound quality as good as the PS Audio Perfect Wave duo . . . .
And that, folks, is what led me to take the plunge and order up a brand-new latest edition TacT RCS 2.2XP AAA modified or enhanced by Anthony Padilla of MauiMods/Aberdeen Components. Anthony's work is universally admired by TacT owners.
I have only had the new TacT for three days now. But I knew from first fire-up that this was going to be really special. Here's what I told Anthony the day after I took my first listen:
In response, Anthony said:
Anthony also told me that my unit has the latest Mk3 revised DSP Board and of course the Burr-Brown ASCR chip, rather than the old Analog Devices one.
Last night I measured the system (using my LinearX M31 calibrated microphone with its individual calibration curve) for the first time with the new unit, played with some target curves, inserted the proper delay for the main speakers, etc. All the familiar TacT RCS functions seen to work as reliably as they did on my old TacT. I'm using the Beta V 1.0x version of the TacT software, as before.
The TacT program works fine with my new Windows 7 operating system; the last time I used the TacT software I was running XP. If you get error messages using Windows 7 almost every time you try to enter a command, as I was at first, that is not the TacT program misbehaving. It is a Windows 7 security setting problem. In Windows Explorer, right-click on the TacT program folder, select Properties and Security. Then give yourself "Full Control" over this program. The error messages should then vanish; at least they did for me.
What's not perfect about the new TacT? Well, I'm sure I'll find a sonic something to complain about eventually. But, sonics aside, I have already suggested to Anthony and Boz that TacT, if possible, should incorporate the equivalent of a dual-channel, 31-band 1/3-octave graphic equalizer into the TacT software. I know, I know--we already have the "more sophisticated" RCS and DRC programs, plus automatic correction and 12-band parametric EQ available.
But some 1984 auditory research by one Henrik Staffelt of the Danish Technical University apparently suggests that 1/3-octave bands are "it" as far as determining the timbre of what we hear. Robert E. Greene has been talking about this research on his forum of late.
Based on my playing around with such graphic equalizers over the years, I also recommended that if TacT adds this, the 1/3-octave filters should be given the characteristics of what Rane calls "Perfect Q" so that adjacent EQ bands don't interact much, as in their DEQ-60L product. See:
http://www.rane.com/note154.html
"Perfect Q" makes such an equalizer much simpler to adjust. With "Perfect Q," a screen display of the 1/3-octave sliders would basically be WYSIWYG-- what-you-see-is-what-you-get--in terms of the alterations you make in frequency response. All other 1/3-octave units are a pain to adjust since there is considerable overlap and interaction between adjacent (and even two-away) bands.
Anthony really liked my graphic EQ suggestion and will pass it on to Boz. Hopefully, Boz will find a way to make it happen.
I'll have more to say later, and I'll include a photo or two of the inside of the box, showing Anthony's refinements versus my old stock version.
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