Tact tda2200 - big claims

i have finally got enough money together to make a substantial upgrade to my system. t/t, speakers and amp are all getting the treatment. there are loads of ex dem offers at the moment which i hope to take advantage of ie MF308int amp and monitor audio gr60's for £2k.
then i see the tact ad in the hifi press and see the tda2200. they claim that this can make any other upgrade unimportant. i reckon the amp will cost around £2.5k based on the euro exchange rate and therefore a viable option.
seems slightly 'snake oil-esk' to me but i've had serious room issues in the past and am therefore very intrigued by this product.
has anyone any experience with the brand that they could enlighten me on

 

I heard them at Manchester and wouldn't touch them with a barge pole. Considering the fact that they are supposed to negate room issues with their room equalising software, they had one of the worst sounds in the show in their rooms. Either someone doesn't know how to set it up properly, or the technology isn't that good. With 2k you can do a lot, especially if you were willing to go second hand or as you suggest ex-dem. Is the room you are going to put speakers in the same room you had issues in in the past?

 

Try it and see... they offer a three-week approval scheme so return it if you don't like it.

I don't think it can be discounted purely on how another person thought it sounded at a show - I find nothing ever sounds good at shows and if I based my hifi purchases on what I heard at shows I'd have given up years ago an bought a boombox from Dixons.

The UK price of the TDA2200 is I think £2100, don't think it includes the room correction module at that price. The TDA2200 is a true digital amplifier - it operates entirely in digital domain until the speaker terminals, so you plug in your CD transport or digital output from a cd player. If you want to attach an analogue source such as TT then you need the A/D convertor module, which is around £300.

They also do semi-digital amplifiers which take normal analogue inputs like any normal amplifer. The SDAi2175 looks pretty good value at £990. In fact I am picking one up tomorrow for a trial period, and will post a mini review on it when I've formed an opinion.

I think there are several people on this forum who have TacT gear or who have tried it in the past so maybe they will be along shortly.

Prices and details are on their website www.tactaudio.co.uk

 

'would'nt touch with a barge pole'!!!!!!

guess that's the beauty of forums then.

the room story is thus:

my kit used to be in a box room basically 10'x6' , with a recliner. lovely sound, all i could hope for.

i then moved moved house and could not find the same sound. bass was boomy and started to incur on the rest of the sound. i was appalled and spent the next year trying to sort the problem out. i ended up with new amps and speakers -cyrus ca7.5, 2xapa7s and cyrus icons. seemed fine but maybe i'd threw so much money at it that i wanted it ,nay, needed it to be right.

i recently had to carry out home improvements so i offered to sell my amps and speakers for contigency cash on the proviso that i could replace them at the first opportunity. wife accepted so i have been running my gyro se, ol250 ,benz mc silver,dino + through a £80 denon amp / tuner and a set of s/h b&w 602s.
basically a step down in realistic terms of around £3000. i know my previous set up is not everyones cup of tea, but my current kit is far from humbled by its fore bears.
i am no longer sure wether the sound problems were knee jerk reactions to new surroundings or just incredibly bad acoustic matching. i just know that i don't want to make the same mistake again.

 

thanks alan,
look forward to your review

 

I had a 3 week trial on an SDA2175, not my cup of tea, i found it a bit to forward and hard sounding. But as always YMMV.
If you do try the 3 week trial, and want to return, there's no problem, but be prepared to have the rest of your system slagged off and be told all TACT gear is above you

 

I would have thought the point of Tact is it can sound good anywhere. It wasn't just me who thought that though, almost everyone I know who went said the same.

 

......so, pretty much like returning things to RA

 

Room acoustics are much, much more complex than simple frequency response correction.

I recently lead a project at work to take a room that was, frankly, crap as a listening enviroment and turn it into a high-quality listening room.

In time and budget limitations I reckon I made a pretty good job. There remain issues with the room that couldn't be solved within the immediate deadline (and I knew that they could not) but these are going to be tackled shortly.

Quite simply I think that a few hundred quid spent sorting a room (and this can be done in aesthetically pleasing ways) will produce a much better sound than any equalisation.

My new listening room (moved house recently) has more than one issue to contend with in sound terms, and I have a few things to tackle. Having had the kit in other rooms, I know that the change is in the room, and I've identified a few causes.

 

when i initially moved in to the house i contacted a room acoustics company who had available a 'studio in a box' solution. before i purchased i rang them and queried the claim that it would sort 99% of problems. after calling them on the claim and telling them i would return if my problem was not solved they said that their solution was probably 'not for me' and it could cost me thousands of £ and many man hours to sort. it would appear that 'room correction' is the new black.

 

Studios have a different sound requirement to listening rooms anyway, and it wouldn't have solved your problems. The other thing is that high-frequency problems are easy to sort... low frequency are more difficult to control.

 

i'm not a fan of tact gear but it does do what it says on the tin. i think i've got a plot of a masive 20+db bass hump at 35hz that occurred in wadia miesters room. the tact steamrollered it flat with no problems at all. so it can solve problems such as that. the thing is a flat response is pretty boring and our ears are accustomed to all the little imperfections that come with our rooms. the tact can sound good but it takes an age to learn what you like and how to tweak the eq curve to get there. listening at a show just won;t tell you this. even a 3 week demo is not really long enough imho.
try to find someone who's lived with one for a while and got it sounding good in their room and then beg a listen before making a decision.
cheers


julian.

 

It's the former. The UK distributor is hopeless! One minute everyone is impressed at Heathrow and Bristol. The next, an eccentric Southerner gets the distributorship and gets appalling sound where ever he goes.

 

would that be the eccentric Southerner i encountered?

 

I'm glad that's the case. To me it sounded like someone who'd played too much with their graphic equalizer. All boom and tizz. The one at Manchester sounded like the worlds biggest and most expensive ghetto blaster.
It begs the question though if the distributor can't set it up in a high profile scenario, can they help you set it up properly in your own room?

 

That is worrying... I cannot imagine its the sort of thing you can do after a flick through the manual. I'm glad I'm only interested in the amps at this stage!

 

Frankly I doubt it. I have a fair amount of experience setting these things up, and in discussions, they seem fairly clueless to be honest. Fortunately there is a user group and many of the guys on there have been playing with the gear for years. Still be prepared for some experimentation - it's fun though.

 

Hi.
I have a full TacT system and and have been through just about all their products. I think they are peerless. True, it takes time and skill to master these devices, but the end results are in a world of their own.
The SDA is a stunning amp and I would politely suugest that the gentleman who had problems may have had an issue with cables. It doesn't take kindly to silver plated cables. This is what may have given you a forwards presentation. Silver foil or copper cables work much better. The TacT amps do need a good month running in. On that note I heard that the amps that were used at the Manchester show were new out of the box and not run in, as they were fresh of the production line. The amps weren't shipping at this time. Having said that, the sound was excellent. Fast, dynamic and open with a massive soundstage.

I subscribe to another forum and the TacT room at Bristol had great comments....................

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=192487&highlight=tact


"Ok, the gripe first: Most of the rooms/setups sounded simply lousy
(see also Ian's and Edward's comments). I am surprised that
manufacturers and distributors spend all the money and effort just to
demo their kit at its worst. For quite a while I thought there was
something wrong with my ears, as I did not like anything."

"Until ... we ran into the TacT room. Wow! Forgotten was the noise of
the other demos, this was music! Swinging, fast, well defined,
spacial, transparent, high-resolution music. I could have sat there
all the rest of the day. They demoed the new TacT TDA2200 integrated
(all) digital amp on Dali Helicon 400 speakers, fed by what I believe
was a Stella CD Transport. Never heard of it before and forgot to
write down brand and model. Big mistake. For only £900 that thing
surely did not let the rest of the amazing chain down. And amazing it
was! I am very curious now to hear the components in other chains to
see if any of them were the key or if they only sound good together.
The TacT guy swore that it was the TacT alone that did it, but I hope
he is wrong, because I fell in love with the Dalis. Additionally to
the amazing sound, they look stunning. I am a sucker for rose and
cherry wood and this pair was beautifully finished in polished dark
rosewood. Even the wife would just have love that. In my books an
absolute bargain for £3300. I believe the TacT was about £2300. In any
case, they offered the whole chain for £6500. Haven't listened to
something that priceworthy for a long time. For a moment I seriously
considered trading in my TAG DP and the money I allocated for Audionet
Amp II G2 monos. Still pondering, actually."


"Tact definitely had a great system in stereo. In the value for money
stakes, their system was outstanding."

"The speakers in the Tact room were Dali and the whole setup sounded
very, very impressive."

"Tact was another room where they used their own electronics complete
with room equalisation whichwas pumped through another maker's
speakers. This time they were a pair of Dali floorstanders and the
overall sound was exquisite."
.......................................................................

My concern is that there may be a little axe grinding going on here, which is a pity, because people could be missing a real opportunity to own some quality kit.

These are just my opinions of course and I am probably as biased as the next man.

It would be more constructive if members understood the products a little better before condemming them though. I feel TacT have raised the bar, massively.

Regards to all.
Ben

 

...and I would politely suggest that's a load of rubbish. I'm sorry, but even if you believe cables make any real difference at all (FWIW I don't), they aren't going to turn an excellent product into a crap one or vice versa. Quite frankly, if an amplifier "doesn't take kindly to silver plated cables" (or any other type of cable for that matter) then it's very poorly designed.

Perhaps penance simply didn't like the TacT? Is that so hard to accept?

I'm sorry to be so harsh on you on your first post on the forum and please don't let it put you off, I just couldn't let a comment like you made pass unquestioned though.

Michael.

 

I'm sorry, but even if you believe cables make any real difference at all (FWIW I don't),

Enough said.


Perhaps penance simply didn't like the TacT? Is that so hard to accept?

No. Not at all. It's fine. Just trying to help anyone who may give an SDA a try. IMHO it's better than any amp up to £4k.

Shame to throw the baby out with the bath water.

Ben