A Tag 7.1DP owners ponderings 5 years on.
I originally owned an original base unit 32R. As I recall I followed all the hardware/software updates and lived for some time with a top spec 32R 7.1. Having loved the original unit, I knew (rightly or wrongly) that it was going to take very few positive feedbacks on the new spec 32DP unit to convince me to part with some money.
I bought a new top-spec AV32DP 7.1 in 2003, roughly 6 months after release, selling on my original unit. After a very shaky first 6 months which involved many returns and several different units, everything was, and has been, fine.
So to today, the AV world of new hi-res audio and the continuing (no doubt ego related in part) thought that I might be missing something? Is my processor in need of retirement and the apparent insistence by some that hi-res audio over HDMI to a £500 integrated unit outperforms almost all last gen kit has forced me to act to find out for myself. I had spent the first 3 of those 5 years of ownership in relative bliss, enjoying DVDs and music alike. Approximately 2 years ago I bought my first HD DVD player whilst overseas, the large and heavy A1 which was bought back in a small suitcase as hand-luggage, something I am unlikely to repeat. Since then I have owned several machines, of both formats, settling on an XE-1 and an older Sony unit. Obviously the PQ improvement on offer is very much appreciated and in that respect I personally have had few issues with HDMI as a transport medium, I am much less convinced with audio however. I have borrowed both (admittedly far cheaper) Yamaha and Onkyo integrated units to see if I felt I really was missing out on something with these new HD audio tracks via HDMI.
To try and cut the story down, it didnt take as long as I thought it would to come to my own decisions.
I preferred the source players connected to the Tag (bypass) via 6 channel analogue interconnects over HDMI to the Yamaha or Onkyo. To say preferred is selling the analogue route short, I was disappointment with the HDMI derived audio by comparison. At the risk of being shot down in flames, in quite a few examples I very much preferred the plain-jane DD or DTS track (via SPdif) via the Tag to the Onkyo HDMI option. That being said, it is only fair to say that there have been a few examples of DD/DTS (via SPdif) that I have preferred to the Tag bypass option from the same source. Ultimately I realise you are comparing a product that is an eighth of the other so any comparison is tenuous at best. My opinion is you might liken this to the arrival of SACD. For a while there was quite e few professional reviews that stated we needed to throw away our £3000 transport/DAC combos and buy a £200 Sony SACD from RS for HiFi nirvana. Time, and now more considered opinions present a different view. To take nothing away from SACD (or its AV equivalents) as a format, simply put engineering, component design and software have every bit their place today as they always have. I look forward to hearing some high-end designs at some point and expect (and hope) to hear definitive improvements. Certainly my preferred hi-res tracks via analogue to the Tag show (to me at least) improvements in the frequency range extremes (tops and bottoms) and dynamic range. This is in keeping with my experiences of SACD/DVDA.
So Ill be keeping the Tag for a while. It has had the rectifier card hardwired and I will sent it away early next year for a cap refit but other than that it remains a superb unit that is still flexible enough for all my requirements. I am very happy that after 5 years I am still of a mind that I dont require anything better, a sentiment that rarely lasts for that amount of time in many other areas of AV kit.
As a side issue I would like to say that during the initial 6 months of my wondering more than once whether I had been a little premature in buying the new Tag I received service that I had not received before or sadly since. On every return (of which must there have been 6 or 8 in number) I would specify where and when the courier should arrive to collect, and similarly on any return. I always received a loan Tag a la swap-out and I would receive daily update e-mails from the chaps in white overcoats (John/Steve). During one particular weekend I spent both Friday and Saturday evenings right through to the A.M, returning e-mails from John/Steve regarding trying various set-ups in attempting to replicate the bug.
It has subsequently occurred to me that whilst I have embraced and enjoyed the HD era, the Tag days where probably the last time i can remember having fun with my AV interest.
Visiting many obvious U.S sites, most outsiders generally likened the Tag community to a cult sect. The Tag forums were often quoted as being populated by single-minded disciples whos blinding faith matched that of many a religious cult!
Well, I used to really enjoy it. I thought it was mainly idiot-free, and populated by some very clever people asking some very well informed questions. Almost up until the end, the Tag software chaps would reply to such requests on the forums, offering pros and cons and action where necessary.
I was always aware that a negative (business based) opinion of the Tag hardware upgrade policy existed, but I was in all honesty gutted when Tag folded. In its wake however I have 5 years of wonderful ownership. I am still impressed with its abilities, and am pretty sure that I simply dont require anything better.
R.I.P
I originally owned an original base unit 32R. As I recall I followed all the hardware/software updates and lived for some time with a top spec 32R 7.1. Having loved the original unit, I knew (rightly or wrongly) that it was going to take very few positive feedbacks on the new spec 32DP unit to convince me to part with some money.
I bought a new top-spec AV32DP 7.1 in 2003, roughly 6 months after release, selling on my original unit. After a very shaky first 6 months which involved many returns and several different units, everything was, and has been, fine.
So to today, the AV world of new hi-res audio and the continuing (no doubt ego related in part) thought that I might be missing something? Is my processor in need of retirement and the apparent insistence by some that hi-res audio over HDMI to a £500 integrated unit outperforms almost all last gen kit has forced me to act to find out for myself. I had spent the first 3 of those 5 years of ownership in relative bliss, enjoying DVDs and music alike. Approximately 2 years ago I bought my first HD DVD player whilst overseas, the large and heavy A1 which was bought back in a small suitcase as hand-luggage, something I am unlikely to repeat. Since then I have owned several machines, of both formats, settling on an XE-1 and an older Sony unit. Obviously the PQ improvement on offer is very much appreciated and in that respect I personally have had few issues with HDMI as a transport medium, I am much less convinced with audio however. I have borrowed both (admittedly far cheaper) Yamaha and Onkyo integrated units to see if I felt I really was missing out on something with these new HD audio tracks via HDMI.
To try and cut the story down, it didnt take as long as I thought it would to come to my own decisions.
I preferred the source players connected to the Tag (bypass) via 6 channel analogue interconnects over HDMI to the Yamaha or Onkyo. To say preferred is selling the analogue route short, I was disappointment with the HDMI derived audio by comparison. At the risk of being shot down in flames, in quite a few examples I very much preferred the plain-jane DD or DTS track (via SPdif) via the Tag to the Onkyo HDMI option. That being said, it is only fair to say that there have been a few examples of DD/DTS (via SPdif) that I have preferred to the Tag bypass option from the same source. Ultimately I realise you are comparing a product that is an eighth of the other so any comparison is tenuous at best. My opinion is you might liken this to the arrival of SACD. For a while there was quite e few professional reviews that stated we needed to throw away our £3000 transport/DAC combos and buy a £200 Sony SACD from RS for HiFi nirvana. Time, and now more considered opinions present a different view. To take nothing away from SACD (or its AV equivalents) as a format, simply put engineering, component design and software have every bit their place today as they always have. I look forward to hearing some high-end designs at some point and expect (and hope) to hear definitive improvements. Certainly my preferred hi-res tracks via analogue to the Tag show (to me at least) improvements in the frequency range extremes (tops and bottoms) and dynamic range. This is in keeping with my experiences of SACD/DVDA.
So Ill be keeping the Tag for a while. It has had the rectifier card hardwired and I will sent it away early next year for a cap refit but other than that it remains a superb unit that is still flexible enough for all my requirements. I am very happy that after 5 years I am still of a mind that I dont require anything better, a sentiment that rarely lasts for that amount of time in many other areas of AV kit.
As a side issue I would like to say that during the initial 6 months of my wondering more than once whether I had been a little premature in buying the new Tag I received service that I had not received before or sadly since. On every return (of which must there have been 6 or 8 in number) I would specify where and when the courier should arrive to collect, and similarly on any return. I always received a loan Tag a la swap-out and I would receive daily update e-mails from the chaps in white overcoats (John/Steve). During one particular weekend I spent both Friday and Saturday evenings right through to the A.M, returning e-mails from John/Steve regarding trying various set-ups in attempting to replicate the bug.
It has subsequently occurred to me that whilst I have embraced and enjoyed the HD era, the Tag days where probably the last time i can remember having fun with my AV interest.
Visiting many obvious U.S sites, most outsiders generally likened the Tag community to a cult sect. The Tag forums were often quoted as being populated by single-minded disciples whos blinding faith matched that of many a religious cult!
Well, I used to really enjoy it. I thought it was mainly idiot-free, and populated by some very clever people asking some very well informed questions. Almost up until the end, the Tag software chaps would reply to such requests on the forums, offering pros and cons and action where necessary.
I was always aware that a negative (business based) opinion of the Tag hardware upgrade policy existed, but I was in all honesty gutted when Tag folded. In its wake however I have 5 years of wonderful ownership. I am still impressed with its abilities, and am pretty sure that I simply dont require anything better.
R.I.P