User:Patrick Cazeles
From DRC
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Evolution of my Hifi System
Summer 2002
It all started with the Tact RCS2.0 room correction system and the Millennium MKII digital amplifier coupled to the BW802's. Audio Nirvana setup for sure !!
Winter 2002
Bi-amping must be the way to go. The Tact RCS2.0 was replaced with the RCS2.2x (featuring main and sub outputs) and a Tact M2150 digital amplifier was added. The improvement was so great that another Tact S2150 for triamping was soon added.
Meantime ACXO...
In the meantime, as an expatriate in Japan, I started ACXO to learn more about audio, in particular to cover as much as possible with a personal computer and to try to reproduce the sound quality I experienced with my digitally corrected multi-amps Tact system in France.
Winter 2003
Second-hand compression drivers with horns and a fourth digital amp (bass/mid-low/medium/treble). The N802's days are numbered...
Summer 2004
I got the bass cabinet built and completely replaced the BW802’s. Horns are notoriously difficult to match together, but room correction makes it a piece of cake.
My system is installed on a very small mezzanine with more space behind the speakers than in front and no left/right symmetry. In my configuration, I found that DRC was giving better results than the Tact RCS2.2x which has been in a closet since about a year now.
Today
I’m experimenting with FPGA Sigma-Delta modulator and comparing with the Texas Instruments PCM-PWM modulator. The target is one clock only for the complete multi-amps setup and absolutely no PLL. There will be no SPDIF or AES connection, just chunks of audio data transferred via USB2.0 to the FPGA extra memory in a double-buffering schema and clocked out to the modulators (with a very high precision clock).
Conclusion
As Michel Fombellida (who is a friend and must be one of Tact best customers) puts it, there is no way back after trying room correction (and multi-amping, and horns …).
Another High End System
ACXO was also tested and compared to the RCS2.2 on an ultra high-end system where twelve Altec 38cm have been mounted in tons of concrete
DRC version 2.4.2 was used and was found to be more precise and clear with a better representation in space of the instruments than the RCS. My two
audiophile friends who attended the test preferred the RCS2.2x "rounder" sound, I preferred DRC because my personal taste is toward cleanness and preciseness.
