TAG clearing their decks

TAG website offering 'test' & s/h refurbished gear reduced. DAC20 now down to £399. Many other 'offers'. Might even be cheaper than Ebay for CDPs..

http://www.tagmclaren.com/members/news/news14.asp

 

Yes Tag do seem to be having a 'Car boot sale' don't they, but it's still not that cheap (sorry good value), the Digital pre could be a bargin if they dropped it to about £500 though WM

 

What does anyone reckon to the CDT20R for £530? I was toying with possibly getting a TAG transport to add to the DAC20. Anyone know if this is a decent machine and a worthwhile upgrade? I assume it has an XLR digital out...

 

I'd try phoning round your Tag dealers first. AFAIK, just about all of them have slashed 40-45% off the RRP on all their Tag stock, just to clear it.

Tag have responded by, closing those dealers accounts I believe :ffrc: :ffrc: :ffrc:

 

hmmm,
looking at tags forum and the mad backpedalling being done by udo zucker (i'm sure he'd call it clarification of his position but to me it looks like backpedalling) you can see that a lot of tags problems are due to a certain business naievety. the sort of dirty laundry airing that tag has done recently is hammering nails into their coffin faster than anything else.
i think even if their strategic review says they should continue in a new direction it will be difficult for them to regain momentum in the market place.
the slapping of dealers for recognising economic and consumer reality is another example of this.
cheers

julian

 

This is a company going out of business, not resting for a while. I would be wary of purchasing anything unless there is a third party garentee if it goes wrong on you.

 

I've just picked up a 7.1 channel AVR32BP192 from Lintone Audio for £2034 to replace my Roksan Caspian DSP, it was supposed to be here today so I could have a good play over the weekend, but good old parcelforce has let me down again.

Still, once it arrives it should be good. All the complaints I've seen on forums about the lack of upgrade path isn't a concern as what other brand does anyone know of who has an upgrade path.

For £2K it can't be bad, I guess I could have spent a bit more one the dual processor version but then it's a bit much to get it past the wife....... Have'nt quite figured out how I'm going to use it with my existing setup (Musical Fidelity CDPRE as source and preamp) but we'll cross that bridge when (if) it arrives........

 

I am sure they are going to have to do a whole lot more discounting when they realise they cant shift any boxes at the MRSP price.

 

Excellent transport and not a bad price either. They were selling them for £900 not so long ago

I reckon a s/h Teac + a few mods to be better though, but since that's the route I've just gone I would say that

Oh yes, it does have XLR digital out. The "T2L" version also had the clock link output but that won't do you any good with the DAC20, only with the AV32R and DPA32R

Michael.

 

Thanks Michael; the other option I was considering was a new clock/DOB for my 63KI (much like you had done I believe ) but I wouldn't trust myself to fit it so would prefer a "new" stand alone transport. Do you think a modded 63 (or Teac etc.) would sound better than a Tag transport?

Cheers.

BTW just seen a Copland cda 288 cd player on Ebay. Anyone know if it's any good/ what it's worth?

 

The copland 288 was £2,000.

All copland products are exellent.

 

Difficult to say - my modded (Trichord DOB) Marantz CD50SE certainly does very well as a transport. I'm only moving up to the Teac because it's a great "fundamental" transport (solid mech etc) and I have a feeling the CD50SE is on it's way out. I'm sure an un-modded Tag would be excellent and for £5-600 would certainly have been tempted myself.

Michael.

 

I'd agree with Michael on this. You can mod the hell out of Marantz but the quality of the actual transport itself is probably not that great and with the passage of time is likely to deteriorate at a faster rate. Mind you, poor Isaac's Rotel has just biten the dust

A good solid tranport like the TAG would be my preference; especially at that price.