Roger was ready to send me new transformers! Could not ask for better communication and treatment. Now with the system blasting for hours the interfaces just get a little warm. Bypassing the controls probably does nothing to improve the sound but, it makes me feel better. I have to reiterate that this was my fault and regular systems and modern room control would never do this. I also bypassed all the switches leaving the bias control alone. I replaced the brilliance control in case I wanted to return the units to stock and permanently mounted the 2 ohm resistors with thermal grease. It did not bother the transformers at all. TacT was the very first to do room control and there were no limits placed on the DSPs. Modern room control units place a limit on the amount of boost that can be applied. It was not in any way the speakers fault. The amount of current at +12 dB 20 kHz was ridiculous and I fried the brilliance control. Up at 20 kHz the impedance is less than 1 ohm. It had inadvertently boosted 20 kHz 12 dB which the JC 1's handily plastered the Sound Labs with. After an hour of loud playback the interfaces were even hotter! Something was wrong. In the mean while I installed 150 Watt 2 ohm resistors bypassing the brilliance control. Roger got a new one to me the very next day. I called Roger and he informed me it was probably the brilliance control. Bass down 3 dB, Midrange 0 dB and brilliance set at 2 ohms (measured).,Īt the end of a particularly loud listening session playing Mellon Coli and the Infinite Sadness, I smelt insulation burning.Īfter 10 minutes of sniffing around I got the the left channel speaker which was where the smell was coming from. After several hours of listening I had room control calibrated and the speakers adjusted to suit my room. The build quality of the interfaces is first class, neatly wired point to point, circuit boards need not apply. All of this is sealed from the environment. The brilliance control is a Zero to 8 ohm 100 watt potentiometer and the bias level control is a smaller potentiometer. The bass and midrange controls are heavy duty rotary switches. On the interface panel there are four controls. You have to be careful with the grill cloth. The speakers were a breeze to assemble and set up but it does take two people. In spite of serious packing one speaker had a small area of the finish rubbed down to primer on the side trim, fortunately an easy fix. The speakers arrived in two serious wooden crates with the interface/bases in two separate boxes. He did not charge me a cent extra for the custom work.
I called Roger West, CEO of Sound Labs and asked if he could make me a set of 8 foot tall 645s in Majestic trim to which he immediately replied, "no problem." Two months later I had my speakers. 645's are 4 inches narrower at 36 inches. Standard 845's were to wide for my situation. They are 8 foot 645's, the first pair ever made. I finally got the Sound Labs dialed in and have been listening for over a month.