Tacima CS929 6 Way Mains Filtering Block

[synsei]

A few days ago after much 'umm'ing and ah'ing' I decided I was not going to find a Belkin pf40 mains conditioner for anywhere near my budget so I began to look around for an affordable alternative. I discovered that this sector is mainly populated by extremely expensive high end equipment and subsequently I was beginning to lose the will to live. That was until I stumbled across a Tacima CS929 on eBay which was so cheap I initially dismissed it. After many more fruitless hours searching the net something drew me back to the eBay shop selling the Tacima product. The reason I'd dismissed it initially is due to the fact that it is a slightly posher looking 6 way mains extension block. I think I'd been seduced by the Belkin's rather attractive and hefty looking casement Anyway, I Google'd the Tacima and low and behold, I find 'What HiFi?' have given it a 5 star rating and there are many other cheery reports about the Tacima CS929 dotted all over t'internet. So, back to eBay I scurry and put an order in 'tout suite'.

The aforementioned article arrived by post this morning and I quickly set about unplugging and removing my old cheapo 10 way extension. I cleaned all the contacts, pins and fuses in the mains plugs and treated them with De-Oxit and then reconnected everything, switched all my kit back on and threw Rumer's Seasons Of My Soul into the Arcam. JESUS 'AITCH' JONES, it literally blew me away!!! Let me qualify that; I was expecting some improvement of course, or I wouldn't have bothered buying one, however I was not prepared for this. It is as big a step up as swapping out the Audiolab 8000c for the Classe Audio DR5 had been, and that's without using decent power leads, mine are all bog standard kettle leads, and old ones at that. Bass is as tight as a drum, imaging is pin sharp, mid-range is delightfully airy and the top end is sublime. If you are using standard mains blocks to power your kit and you are budget conscious, I urge you to ditch them and grab one or two of these Tacima's, it is an outstanding product

[Ammonite Audio]

I have one of these. It is now used as an extension block for the computer, in the hope of stopping the computer from polluting the house mains. If the Tacima works wonders for you, your previous mains setup must have been truly awful. Musically, IMO, the Tacima is awful.

[synsei]

Each to their own Shuggie, all I can report is what I'm hearing, and what I'm hearing is a vast improvement, and I mean in a 'night & day' stylie...

[synsei]

Yeah thanks Alex. I found Will's thread right after I posted mine , but in my defense Will didn't mention the Tacima in his thread title

I'll try swapping the Hafler out of the circuit tomorrow morning, can't do it now unless I want the neighbors playing along with the percussion on the walls

[Alex_UK]

Yeah thanks Alex. I found Will's thread right after I posted mine , but in my defense Will didn't mention the Tacima in his thread title

I'll try swapping the Hafler out of the circuit tomorrow morning, can't do it now unless I want the neighbors playing along with the percussion on the walls

[icehockeyboy]

What you should have done is try your kit into the Tac BEFORE you did all the cleaning and De Oxit malarkey, that way you would know if it was down to the Tacima, the way you did it may mean it was better beacause of the cleaning........

As it is, and I think I mentioned this somewhere else on the forum, I tried FAR more expensive blocks before buying a Tac, and for a tenth of the price of one of them< I am well pleased with it!

[WAD62]

Yeah thanks Alex. I found Will's thread right after I posted mine , but in my defense Will didn't mention the Tacima in his thread title
:

Hi Dave,

No thread motherhood here...

I've got 6 now, I should get some shares!

I know there are probably better quality options, but I doubt there's anything to touch them on value.

Like you I'm running everything, including the power amps through it, perhaps if one is using a class A amp there may be some choking issues, mine are A/B Audiolabs so I don't believe 'choking' is an issue for me.

[synsei]

Thanks Will

I've now done a comparison test with the Hafler running from the Tac as well as straight from the wall and the results are conclusive, the Hafler sounds so much better when running through the Tac. To test for potential choking issues I seriously abused the volume control on the DR5 this morning with no apparent ill effects. In fact, the more I cranked it up the better it got...

[Alex_UK]

Dave - we've been around the block (sorry) a few times with the Tacima - most people (myself included) found that they were good for the money - but I did end up taking the amplifier back out and plugging directly into the mains again as it sounded better IMHO so worth trying that if you can be bothered.

[ursus262]

Dave - we've been around the block (sorry) a few times with the Tacima - most people (myself included) found that they were good for the money - but I did end up taking the amplifier back out and plugging directly into the mains again as it sounded better IMHO so worth trying that if you can be bothered.

A point worth considering. I use one of these blocks with desirable results. The only thing I would say is that the impedance of these blocks is quite high and would suggest plugging the amp directly into the mains.

Dave