TagMclaren Gone?

Never owned any to be honest - having said that, if a 5X100R comes up for a few hundred quid then I'll be up for one!

On the Audiolab side, a friend has an 8000S/8000SX pair bi-amping a pair of MA Studio 20SE's (with a Naim CD5 source) and I thought that sounded pretty good.

Matt.

 

Well, I too will be sad to see TAG go. Audiolab was bought out just after I'd bought the 8000CD, and after receiving a glossy mailing from the new owners, full of hype and F1 references, I vowed (like many others) to have nothing to do with them.
Times change. The very fact that many others did indeed feel the same way meant that dealers began to pull out, and expensive TAG products started appearing at sell-off prices. That's how I got my PA10 / 60P combination - new and at less than half price.
That was 3 or so years ago. As TAG went more and more AV and upmarket, there were more plain vanilla stereo bargains to be had, either direct from TAG or through yet more dealers who were pulling out, especially last summer. That's when I added the DAC20, another 60P and upgraded the pre-amp to the 20R.
So for someone who started out vowing to have nothing to do with the flash guys at TAG, I've ended up with an entirely TAG based system, but mostly at TAG's expense.
I must say, to me it all sounds very good!
It'll be interesting to see what the new owners do with their purchase. It seems from the website that warranties and service are assured, although the footnote might lead one to assume that the name didn't go with the sale.

 

Much the same as Eisenach above, I owe my system to the 'failure' of TAG to appeal to the mainstream and yet remain competitive and innovative. I have a complete TAG system (CDT20R-T2L/DAC20/PA20R/two 60P's) which I could never have afforded were it not for the 'unloading' prices that have been prevalent over the past couple of years.

I guess prices of 'proper' TAG badged kit will now either fall through the floor (lack of confidence) or go through the roof (exclusivity). Either way, I'll be keeping mine because I just love the way it drags everything out of my CD's!

 

Whilst I hate to see any company go to the wall, I can't say they didn't deserve it in this case.

So no more Tag gear. All IAG have "bought" is the rights to use some of the Tag technology, in exchange for offering servicing to existing users. You will not see anything more with that garish logo on it, and they just might get rid of the blue LED's

So who fancies a Quad AV processor, manufactured in China, and retailing for less than £2K then! That should wake up the AV boys

 

Way back in 1991 I managed to get a MkI 8000A for 110 squids and matched this with a pair of Kef Model 104AB which I picked up for 100. It wasnt a dry sound (probably due to the Kef's), it was spacey, detailed and deep and ideal when a nice lickle bit of quality Jamaican Indica was applied liberally to the listening party. For 210 it was outstanding value for money.

However, when I returned to Hi-Fi some years ago to find Tag had purchased/picked up and rebranded the Audiolab range (and added pretty much 45% to the prices) I thought it was a real shame.

I always loved the aesthetics, brand name and logo of Audiolab. I reckon if IAG make the right choices on how to bring the Audiolab products into 2004, that brand would succeed again. Are they likely to revert the brand back though?

 

Dont worry with Udo, he was officially retired long ago, this was more of an hobby, I dont mean this regarding his performance, but his motivation...

Cheers Udo, enjoy your new baby in Algarve, time to give it a rest... :beer:

 

Lets get down to brass tacks.

Tag tried to sell second rate pap with flashing blue lights to the general public.

The general public did not buy into this.

I will never forget the hifi show with the formula one car in it. At that point you couldn't help but think 'W**kers.'

 

Disagreed - their products were good, albeit with a certain house sound.

Agreed

 

So garyi I thinks the AV32R, DVD32R and DAC20 are 'second rate pap'? At this point I can't help but think....

Actually, I agree with you that the brand was the problem and turned lots of people off which was tragic as there were some fine products beneath the unnecessary glitz, the AV32R arguably being the finest example and something of a land-mark product. Remember that it was £2K when it came out and there was nothing to touch it at that price.

Matt.

 

I'm with eisenach on this one. The AV32 is just awsome. Not second rate pap as you say.
The T32 DAB Tuner is 'probably the best tuner you can/could buy'.

FWIW I thought the Blue LED's where a stroke of genius and class, how many other companys are now copying....Exposure...Rotel....MF....etc.



I will never forget the hifi show with the formula one car in it. At that point you couldn't help but think 'W**kers.' [/QUOTE]


I'd say stunts like that where the brainchild of Udo. Reading some of his replys and posts over the years on the Tag site you could tell that only one opinion counted for anything...........and that was his OWN.

Maybe if Tag had ditch him 3 years ago they might still be going strong now.

Anyhow they ain't, but some of there products are legendary, if not all.

 

As an owner of a DVD32R and AV32R, bought 2nd hand and ex-dem, I don't understand why anyone could say they are not great products. The DVD was very, very expensive for sure, but performs superbly, there really was nothing to touch it picture quality-wise until recently, and the sound quality is great.

The AV32 was revolutionary and works superbly and is a doddle to use. Compare it to the Primare I looked into at the time of purchase. It too cost £2k and offered no upgrade path whatsoever. It just edged the TAG on 2ch stereo but for AV use it was clunky to use and didn't sound great.

My AV32 paired with a Densen B400XS, using the analogue bypass, sounds superb.

The only thing that killed TAG off, was trying to sell off all the old Audiolab stock they inherited, at prices no-one was willing to pay. Had they just started from scratch as an AV company, they probably would have succeeded. It was the stereo products that klled them.

 

Sounds about right. And if it's Dougie Self doing the design work... Who knows we could end up with the hifi equivalent of Behringer. That should make the competition nervous

 

The real mistake was buying Audiolab in the first place. They should have started from scratch, with a new exterior design.

 

And to come in at the end.

So Mark, what is so wrong with Quad? Name one of their current products which isn't competative at it's price point? Of course you've listened to all of their products haven't you

 

Quad: :guitar: :elephant: :banana: :boogie: :drum: :gould:

(biased, me?)

 

Quad may be OK, if a little stale sounding. But not quite in the Tagmclaren bracket.

 

Quad's electrostatics are more than OK, they're amongst the best speakers money can buy.

Then there's the Quad II, the 405-2, the tuners... More cast-iron classic products than virtually any other audio company I can think of.

-- Ian

 

"Dont worry with Udo, he was officially retired long ago, this was more of an hobby, I dont mean this regarding his performance, but his motivation... " Antonio

That was pretty much what I said.

"Cheers Udo, enjoy your new baby in Algarve, time to give it a rest... "

Do you keep in contact with him?

Is he fully retired now?

Ian

 

Stale sounding in what way?

Which Quad items (modern or vintage) have you listened to?

 

Just so long as they don't mimic Behringer's nasty habit of ripping off other people's copyrighted designs...

There are two well documented, proven cases of copyright infringment against them, and I know of another that may or may not come to court soon. In one of the proven cases they had copied the orignal product so closely that the copies even had the same maker's name and product ID etched onto the main circuit board!

Simon