To Tacima or not to Tacima - that, is the question

[True Blue]

I have up until now been fairly non plussed on the idea of mains conditioning, but thought I would buy a Tacima 6 way mains conditioner and see the difference.

Well, I am absolutely gobsmaked that so little investment can reap so many rewards to the clarity and definition of both visual and audio aspects of my system.

Even dodgy SD channels (Dave you know its you, and Alibi) have been sharpened the most.

Thought I would post this just to inform allof the wonders of conditioning!!

 

[survivor]

Yeah, they seem to be selling very well and are highly regarded. I have one for my hi-fi which did offer a small improvement (made the sound slightly more solid) though I understand they are even better with AV equipment. When I upgrade my AV gear I shall buy another.

 

[drummerman]

I use one for the TV and it did work well with AVI's and some other, usually powerful in nature stuff but can slightly rob sound of impact and drive with others. Suck it and see but its cheap enough to take a pun and won't be wasted if you have a telly/pc or whatever even if you happen not to like it.

 

[up the music]

I've one of their offline 5723 conditioners on the way. Not as good as the 929 apparently. I would say neaten your existing wiring as far as you can first. I got a massive drop in hum levels just shifting cables out from around my amp just preparing a slot to drop my new offline conditioner into. Now I need some good half metre cables to keep my wiring tidy.

 

[lonely boy]

If you have a good power supply, you may find that the Tacima will squash the sound of your HiFi equipment. As I found it to be detrimental, I gave it to my sister, who found an improvement with her AV equipment - less interference obviously.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, I think much depends on how dirty the Mains is in the 1st place, also how tidy the cable runs are behind the equipment.

For what they cost they are worth trying out, many find the TV picture is improved as well.

 

[True Blue]

I would never have believed it, but, last night I was alone in the house and thought, right cables you are getting some attention (i know i need a life). Pulled my gear out and then using various cable ties and clips tidied up my cables etc, to the point of being anal (sorry perfect). Then I tested my gear on all inputs and there was a noticable difference to the clarity and seperation of my audio from all sources. Most impressed

 

[mafrost]

I received my Tacima CS929 in the post today and so far have been thoroughly disappointed. I replaced my previous 6-way Masterplug SurgeGuard with the Tacima and swapped all the power leads for my components into the Tacima accordingly.

I instantly noticed reduced weight, definition and slam in the bass of my Musical Fidelity Pre/Power amplifiers, along with a noticeably reduced soundstage. Also, the picture on my Sony Bravia took a noticable turn for the worse.

I then spent many hours switching power cables back and forth between the Masterplug SurgeGuard 6-way and the Tacima. Only to find the resulting sound quality and picture quality noticeably better via the Masterplug. This was a very disappointing discovery after all the reviews and hype the Tacima has recieved.

Perhaps the Tacima will improve over time, after some kind of "burn in" period. If not, I will relegate the Tacima to lesser duties and continue to use the Masterplug for my amps/TV/CD/Blu-ray players; and would then thoroughly recommend against the Tacima.

Anyone else had similar experience ?

 

[Anonymous]

it needs a while to burn in I suspect

 

[idc]

mafrost:

I received my Tacima CS929 in the post today and so far have been thoroughly disappointed. I replaced my previous 6-way Masterplug SurgeGuard with the Tacima and swapped all the power leads for my components into the Tacima accordingly.

I instantly noticed reduced weight, definition and slam in the bass of my Musical Fidelity Pre/Power amplifiers, along with a noticeably reduced soundstage..........

I would try the Tacima without the MF amps. Keep the amps on the Surgeguard instead. Tacimas are known to strangle amps and it is recommended not to plug amps into them.

I have just got a Tacima Mains Conditioner & Surge Protector. It is a small plug in unit as I did not need the whole 6 way extension which would not have fitted into the gap anyway. Working with a Russ Andrews The Silencer (which is twice the price now) I have to turn my amp up to maximum to get any hiss at all through the headphones. It has been like stripping away another veil between me and the music.

I can get away with an amp through a mains conditioner as my MF X-CANV8P only outputs 1.2 watts.

 

[Anonymous]

Arthur at tacima told me those mains filter plugs were dis-continued, he now says the demand went back up so they are for sale again! I have them all over the house, superb item IMHO.

 

[Anonymous]

idc, how did you manage to get your avatar to load, tried 8 times no work yet?

 

[idc]

The avatar thingy doesnt work most of the time. Most of us e-mailed our avatars to WHF at whathifi@haymarket.com and a nice person did it for us.

Good news about the Tacima plug ins. Mine's a cracker.

 

[Anonymous]

Can recomend the TCI babt constrictor at about £70-80. It made a huge difference to my kit. Got one on both systems. Have the tacima on the TV in the back bedroom, and it does make a bit of a difference, but not as much as the other one.

 

[wireman]

mafrost:I instantly noticed reduced weight, definition and slam in the bass... Anyone else had similar experience ?
Yes, me.

 

[Anonymous]

idc:
The avatar thingy doesnt work most of the time. Most of us e-mailed our avatars to WHF at whathifi@haymarket.com and a nice person did it for us.

Good news about the Tacima plug ins. Mine's a cracker.

avatar is slow coming, e-mailed twice now!

 

[scene]

mains cables r us:idc:
The avatar thingy doesnt work most of the time. Most of us e-mailed our avatars to WHF at whathifi@haymarket.com and a nice person did it for us.

Good news about the Tacima plug ins. Mine's a cracker.

avatar is slow coming, e-mailed twice now!

Re Avatar: Make sure its 100x100 (or less) pixels - as that makes WHF happier. Also, I posted mine with a link to it on photobucket.com and my avatar was up by the next day...

 

[Anonymous]

i have 2500 photos up there don't know if there is any more room...lol...thx for tip anyway mate

 

[aliEnRIK]

mafrost:

I received my Tacima CS929 in the post today and so far have been thoroughly disappointed. I replaced my previous 6-way Masterplug SurgeGuard with the Tacima and swapped all the power leads for my components into the Tacima accordingly.

I instantly noticed reduced weight, definition and slam in the bass of my Musical Fidelity Pre/Power amplifiers, along with a noticeably reduced soundstage. Also, the picture on my Sony Bravia took a noticable turn for the worse.

I then spent many hours switching power cables back and forth between the Masterplug SurgeGuard 6-way and the Tacima. Only to find the resulting sound quality and picture quality noticeably better via the Masterplug. This was a very disappointing discovery after all the reviews and hype the Tacima has recieved.

Perhaps the Tacima will improve over time, after some kind of "burn in" period. If not, I will relegate the Tacima to lesser duties and continue to use the Masterplug for my amps/TV/CD/Blu-ray players; and would then thoroughly recommend against the Tacima.

Anyone else had similar experience ?

Youll probably find the power amp performs better when NOT connected through it. The tv should be better mind, and I cant see there being a problem plugging the pre amp in either so perhaps its simply the power amp drawing too much power so everything is worse off?

 

[Anonymous]

from what I have read, the Tacima is perhaps best suited to tv .... have also read that many have said it does not work well with some hifi amps ... some have said that it is good when the cdp is connected to it

I have tried 3 amps and 3 different cdp's ... I don't hear a difference, but my ears are old

but for £24, at least you have surge protection

 

[Anonymous]

for home cinema it works great, the tv is producing deeper blacks and contrast and better motion, sound seems much cleaner and detailed,

 

[nij_1]

I bought a Tacima mains conditioner and just connected it to my set-up thinking that was it! It can only improve the sound at best and do nothing at worst, but I would have surge protection anyway. After some listening I was convinced that the caps in my amp were worn out and contacted Roksan about having them replaced. Then, on this forum, I read some of the comments about using this product with amplifiers and the 'compressed' sound it can create. I plugged the amplifier directly into the wall socket and guess what? There is nothing wrong with it, all the dynamics are back. I do, however still use the Tacima with my arcam cd192 as it produces a smoother sound but don't use it with an amplifier.

 

[Ronald Archiebald]

True Blue,

The Tacima CS929 is a fantastic conditioner worth every penny!

Ronald

 

[vinod_david]

Another strong vote for the Tacima.

 

[Anonymous]

I got one of these a few days ago for my TV setup and Its a bit of a mixed bag for me at the mo.

The pros are sharpened image (overall more detail and colour cohesion and variation) and sound is improved even on built in speakers. On the downside there's been no improvement on bringing out dark areas, the colour difference between cable channels has increase (such as when you watch Friends on E4 everyone looks even more like a tomotoe now) and, rather annoyingly, the sound and audio are slightly out of sync (audio before picture).

Has anyone else experienced any of these issues?