Tag Go Bye Bye

Arhh............. I can see Timpy rubbing his hands at all that cheap 'Dryness' that will soon be for sale (very Cheapy too), the boy's a closet earther, soon Audiolab/Tag next stop Naim, arhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh :chair:

 

I think we're going to have to agree to disagree on this one. I agree that a decent hifi pre-amp may well better the AV32R for stereo (although I found the AV32R to be very impressive in this role), however, that same hifi pre-amp (+ stereo power amp) coupled with a budget AV amp/receiver hasn't got a hope in hell of matching the TAG for 5 channel - the quality of the processing of the AV32R is vastly superior virtually all integrated AV amps plus you have the advantage, albeit at a cost, of separate power amps. To get anywhere near the AV32R's processing quality on an integrated basis you'd be looking at the likes of Denons AV1SR which itself costs around £2.5K.

It's also worth adding that the AV32R, even in basic 96kHz guise, gave the owner a DAC (for stereo use) that was a step up from the TAG DAC20 and this, of course, could give a hefty step up in performance for budget CD players and DVD players.

When you start looking at it like this, the AV32R looks better value especially if, like me, you picked one up ex-dem for several hundred quid below the r.r.p.

As for the future value of these units, it depends upon what future servicing and upgrades are available - from what I have read it seems as though older units like mine will be able to have all the upgrades that are available to date - which is quite a lot e.g. PLII, 192DACs, 5.1 bypass, EX etc.

I would say that if AV32R's start to come down to near a grand 2nd hand then, assuming future servicing upgrades are available, then it would be a cracking buy as there is no other processor to touch it at that sort of money.

Matt.

 

No doubt an original 60s "vintage" Tag Monaco would fetch a fortune but Tag have cynically "re-issued" it now so it's in their current lineup at a normal Tag price (around £1500 IIRC).

I do like the Monaco, but I just don't see the point of spending more than £100 on a watch - of course if you seem them as jewlery instead of just a useful thing that tells the time then your views may differ.

Also, being a huge Ferrari fan, I couldn't possibly bring myself to spend so much money on something so closely associated with the McLaren F1 team

Michael.

 

And I had you down for an IWC Portugieser, Michael! See

http://www.iwc.ch/index-en.asp

They start at a mere CHF7250....

 

Tones - I do like the IWC range. Certainly different to the standard Tag or Breitling wrist weight that everyone else seems to have :MILD:

Currently making do very nicely with a Calvin Klein "badged" Swatch Irony with date and chronograph, white on black dial. Tells the time and date accurately, has a stopwatch and is waterproof enough for swimming which is all I need. I chose the CK watch because it looked nicer than all the Swatch Irony range and was only marginally more expensive. BTW, Swatch make all CK watches

Michael.

 

Me too. There's just the matter of the money... The specialised dealers I can access can do them at 15% discount, but that's still a lot of lolly.

 

Too true. Much as I like a lot of Swiss watches, I simply couldn't justify the cost. For me, a watch is a tool, not a piece of jewelery.

Ian - I too have a couple of those ex-soviet watches which I bought in East Berlin shortly after the wall came down but I'm a bit doubtful as to their originality, especially as they are now 2 a penny in places like Camden market Mine both never worked for longer than a week, even when I didn't forget to wind them up

Michael.

 

I had Breitling, TAG Heur, Camel, Swatch, and others, all had some kind of problem, for instance looking old after a little while...

I now have an Omega, since 1998, and not only does it work flawless, but it looks exacltly as it did new, I bought it at Heathrow airport... :MILD:

 

Well it's going to be a sad day if they disappear, but I for one was wondering which tree they were barking up.

As for me selling the TAG DAC 20, absolutely not!!! I may well upgrade it one day, but I'll find a use for it. It's one of those products that I have an affiliation with. It is also neutral and airy enough with a lightness of touch that absolutely seems to escape many cdps. No, it's not the best, but I like it more than most, much much much more. It's these same qualities that mean that the Audiolab 8000LX amp will stay indefinately also, although not in the main set-up. No-one else has ever quite done it for me like TAG/Audiolab.

All this is with the right transport of course, and the right transport is ABSOLUTELY NOT the TEAC VRDS T1 I am currently using (see sperate thread).

Cheers

 

timpy, stop mucking about and get a decent source. I'm surprised you like the DAC20. Having owned one, in hindsight it's woolly at the bottom end and smooth and polite to a fault. Dull, dull, dull. OK, good for £350, inasmuch as it's an improvement on cheap CDPs, but not exactly scintillating. I suspect its basic character will remain regardless of tweaking with transports and cables. Time to get serious on your front end, I reckon, and ditch the Tag.

-- Ian

 

Ian, who strong words Careful Now, the Wraith of :knight: will be coming down on you, for the sacreligious deformation of the 'Legend' that is Dac 20 :spank: :beat: :chair: .
In all fairiness, Ian, we do have it sounding quite damn good it certainly doesn't have wholly bass (not in Timp's system) (transport issue's) aside, Timpy's is more earthy than he admits, preferring the more , nimble dryer approach, me I like body, but also flow, and to be fair the teac t1 isn't doing this any where near as well as the Arcam , so we'll fix it this week. maybe
:saw: WM

 

That was my suspicion. Don't think the DAC20's going to do that very well. Plodding, I thought. But perfectly pleasant.

-- Ian

 

Ian, the words your looking for is SAFE I feel , it does hitch it's skirt up and rumba, with a suitable transport attached though, all I got to do now is get it to do both :beamup: WM

 

I think the word you mean Tone is Wrath never mind keep up your infantile pops, lets people see that you are having a dig at people when nothing is being said to/about you. You look the idiot here, trust me on this.

Im sure you will be left unhindered as usual so carry on it is your forum lest we forget. BTW Ive heard better sources than the DAC 20 but not for the same value factor as a second hand / exdem 20.

 

:crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :SLEEP: :SLEEP: :SLEEP:

 

Merlin,

Nice Woofer! is that what you are using in your project?

 

Hi Ian

To be fair, to accuse the DAC 20 of having a plodding bass can only be made in the context of some transport and interconnect combinations IMO, not least because of the startling differences that they can have to it (and many others). During development of digital cables, with the same source, (Arcam Alpha 8 cdp is one of them) we've managed to achieve far far worse than just plodding bass (inadvertantly :shame: and sometimes deliberately to test theories). We've made plug in Naim (stereotype of the sound), same for Mana, or Valve etc. or many others, you name it, we may well have recreated a facsimilie of each of these stereotypes. In many cases you'd have been hard pressed to tell whether it was the same DAC at all, let alone whether it was a DAC 20 or not. And this can be achieved with the same transport, or to a large extent with all the transports tried.

If you take the DAC 20 though, and start playing with it's power supply (and not invasively even, the cover has never been off, it's mine not Omiga Audio's and still has a years warrenty to run), it starts to punch well well above it's weight, whilst retaining an overall "neutral" or "safe" character. Like some Audiolab products before it, I like it's sound very much, but I don't "do" plodding (it's one of my main aversions) and fortunately, properly tooled up with transport and suitable digi interconnect (not just one of ours note), neither does the DAC 20.

Hi CJ

Surely you must recognise WM's comment is tongue in cheek. You do seem to have set yourself up for a little jibe over here occasionally, so it's probably best to take it in the manner in which it is intended, i.e. without maliciousness.

Cheers

 

Noticed one today in Goldsmiths in Cirencester, they are £2200

 

Well Timpy you may take it as TIC I take it quite differently as do many who know the history of us 3, I have asked before to kindly leave me out of discussions involving you 2, so to see cack like the above is quite annoying, in fact its one of the reasons I dont post here. Oh BTW from the forum rules :

The following things won't be tolerated:
1) Personal insults, persistent harrasment of an individual, disputes of a personal nature and or flaming in general.

Lastly, if any member feels they have been the subject of abuse etc. they are encouraged to PM one of the moderators (who currently are myself, Robbo, julian2002 and cookiemonster) with the details. It's quite impossible for the moderators to keep track of every post and inevitably things will get missed. We'd also encourage members to use the "report this post" feature (link bottom right on each post) to bring things to the moderators' attention, for the same reasons that we won't always be able to cover everything!

Oh yes I have set myself up for endless little jibes for ever disagreeing with you pair, which I still do BTW on many of your opinions. And before Im asked why I did not contact a Mod about this : why should I when it clear for all to see its baiting.

ATB

 

Honestly CJ, you really need to lighten up mate The comment that WM made was the same kind of thing anyone would have made about anyone else here if someone had criticized their "favourite" bit of kit. If you think that forum guideline no 1) applies to any of the posts in this thread then I'm very sorry, you're right, this forum is not the place for you, as jokes are allowed here.

Also, your accusation that this forum belongs to WM "it is your forum lest we forget" is utterly outrageous and I hope you don't make it again :inferno: It is my forum. I've paid for it, own the domain, the webspace and everything else. No one else has contributed and neither have I asked (nor do I want ATM) anyone to contribute. WM is not even a moderator and never has been.

Ultimately though the forum belongs to all its members, because without them it would be nothing

CJ - either contribute to the forum properly or don't post at all if all you're going to do is snipe from the sidelines to stir up trouble.

Michael.