Anyone know how much the Tag AV192R will cost?

NicolasB

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Still in the middle of auditioning processors and multi-channel amps (so hard to find any one store that stocks any two that you want to compare under controlled conditions). Anyway, the latest version of the Tag McLaren remains in contention, partly because of the possibility of upgrading to a full AV192R in the future. (Oddly enough one of the AV192R features I'm interested in is the optional Dolby Headphone module). But I'm not sure whether that's something I really ought to be taking into consideration, because I don't know how much the AV192R (or upgrade to it) is actually likely to cost. If it turns out to cost £3K to make the upgrade then there will be little point in making this a factor in my calculation. So: does anyone have a plausible estimate of what the AV192R will sell for?
 
Hi

I understand the "base" price of the AV192r will be £5-£6k UK GBP.

I am not in the market for one, but when I was looking at processors, this is what a dealer told me.

He / I could be wrong though.

HTH
 
Edge.


Did u get your DV27 for a demo over the weekend?

Did u go for the Arcam, or are u still pondering?

Adzman..
 
Why consider the 192R if you dont know what you want in it. You could buy an AV32R now and add the relevant modules you want later. The upgrade is completely modular and the bulk of the cost will be in the PSM192 and the soon to be released scaler. Go to the TAG site and check out the options avaialble for the 192R, there is a configurator there although it doesn't include pricing yet you can at least see what bits you might want to add to an AV32R. You will not be penalised financially by upgrading either.

Steve
 
There are some things I want in it - Dolby Headphone, for one - but if I'm going to end up paying upwards of £6K for it then there's no point in considering it as possibility, which means that the ability of the AV32R to be upgraded to it is irrelevant. That doesn't mean that the AV32R isn't a good processor in its own right, or that I'm definitely not going to buy an AV32R, it just means that if I buy one it won't be because it can be upgraded to an AV192R.
 
Originally posted by NicolasB
There are some things I want in it - Dolby Headphone, for one - but if I'm going to end up paying upwards of £6K for it then there's no point in considering it as possibility, which means that the ability of the AV32R to be upgraded to it is irrelevant. That doesn't mean that the AV32R isn't a good processor in its own right, or that I'm definitely not going to buy an AV32R, it just means that if I buy one it won't be because it can be upgraded to an AV192R.

You're missing the point, the AV192R is an AV32R but with additional options loaded and put into a diffrent case because of the space.

You may well find that the 32R with the 192bp upgrade and the twin sharks and Dolby headphone is all you want in which case it wont be 6K. TAG are being pretty innovative with the AV32R/192R purchase/upgrade dont let historical perceptions of how an upgrade program works taint your view.... go to the tag site and check it out.

Steve
 
No, look: the AV32R costs <£3000, depending on options. If, as people on this thread seem to think, the AV192R will cost upwards of £6000 even in its most basic configuration then it will still cost upwards of £6000 regardless of whether you buy one outright or buy a 32R first and then spend another £3000 on upgrading it. No matter how you look at it, you're paying £6000. And that's more than I can afford to spend on a processor. I'm looking for something more like £3000 - am auditioning Arcam, Tag AV32R, vagely considering Meridian 568.2 or Bryston SP1.7. A processor costing £6K is a whole different ball game - competing with the likes of Krell, Proceed, Meridian 861, McIntosh, Theta, even Mark Levinson.

Maybe the Dolby headphone add-on will be availble for the AV32R, but so far as I can tell from the information currently available it will NOT be: you'll have to upgrade the processor to a basic AV192R before you start thinking about options; and I'd be crazy to spend upwards of £3000 just to install Dolby Headphone in an AV32R processor.

Now, if it turns out that the estimates in this thread so far are actually wrong and that an AV192R in its most basic configuration will only cost £3K-£4K, in other words the upgrade price will be <£1K, then that brings it back into the calculation again.
 
I have to agree with Nicolas here.

A lot of the modules will not be available in a av32r due to space in the chasis. So if you just want a particular module and its only available in an av192r but you have to pay ~3000 base price to upgrade on top of the cost of the module, then that is an issue.

It is still the best upgrade policy going, but the base price of an upgrade from av32r to av192r is a major consideration. I dont think anyone is saying its not worth it or its a bad move by tag.. its just that if you only have about 3-4k budget then it is a factor.

Martin
 
I am of the opinion that the estimated retail prices for AV192r make the Arcam AV8 look like something of a bargain.
Certainly the AV8 has a much better feature set than the Tag AV32r pound for pound.
I auditioned the Tag against the Arcam and personally preferred the sound of the Arcam. I find the Tag too sterile. All down to personal taste though.
With regard to upgrades, I think we have to take Arcam at their word and believe they will follow.
 
Nicolas, According to a post on the Tag McLaren website by Udo Zucker (Tag's CEO) even the entry level Tag processor, the AV30R, will be upgradeable to include Dolby Headphone (whatever that is!). So perhaps an AV32R should still be on your shortlist to audition. There would be no need to upgrade to the full AV192R, although buying an AV32R would at least allow for this possibility ij a number of years time if that was what you wanted. Secondhand AV32Rs can be had for £1,600 or so, in their basic spec. That's a bargain price for a great piece of kit in my opinion, and buys you into Tag's unrivalled support and upgrade pathways to protect your investment.

Regards

Rob
 
Certainly the AV8 has a much better feature set than the Tag AV32r pound for pound.
Would you care to elaborate on that, Edgey?


I auditioned the Tag against the Arcam and personally preferred the sound of the Arcam. I find the Tag too sterile.
I've recently listened extensively to the Arcam and to a pre-bp192 version of the Tag processor side by side, and the Arcam is definitely the better of those two. You notice it most with dialogue. But the bp192 upgrade is supposed to make quite a substantial difference. I have listened to a bp192 twice, but one time I didn't have anything to compare it to on the same system, and the other (compared with Arcam AV8 and Lexcion DC2) was rather rushed, and I'm not totally convinced the Arcam was set up properly.:devil:
 
I've been thinking about updates as well. There is no doubt that TAG have a very good track record but I wonder what will happen now that they have a new top tier product. Clearly they will want people to upgrade and may not be quite so quick to upgrade the AV32 in order to encourage them in that direction. TAG are already saying that there is no more room inside the casing and no space for extra sockets etc...

Whereas the Arcam AV8 is the top of the range and would be the best product to benefit from any upgrade that Arcam chose to issue. Now there is no track record for the AV8 but I'm sure JD is aware of the importance of upgradeability when marketing a product in this market segment which will be their top tier product.

All complete supposition on my part of course!!

Me - I'm tempted by the Arcam;)
 
Originally posted by NicolasB
Would you care to elaborate on that, Edgey?


No problem:

The AV8 has the following that the AV32r does not:

THX Ultra 2
Component Video / RGB Inputs
Scart Control
7.1 Channel input
200ms delay
More digital inputs

The above is not meant to be an exhaustive list. For this, please visit:

http://www.arcam.co.uk

Of course, only the AV32 has:

Tag Comm Bus
Tagtronic link

Both only usuable with Tag products...

Tom.;)
 
Originally posted by NicolasB
No, look: the AV32R costs <£3000, depending on options. If, as people on this thread seem to think, the AV192R will cost upwards of £6000 even in its most basic configuration then it will still cost upwards of £6000 regardless of whether you buy one outright or buy a 32R first and then spend another £3000 on upgrading it. No matter how you look at it, you're paying £6000. And that's more than I can afford to spend on a processor. I'm looking for something more like £3000 - am auditioning Arcam, Tag AV32R, vagely considering Meridian 568.2 or Bryston SP1.7. A processor costing £6K is a whole different ball game - competing with the likes of Krell, Proceed, Meridian 861, McIntosh, Theta, even Mark Levinson.

Maybe the Dolby headphone add-on will be availble for the AV32R, but so far as I can tell from the information currently available it will NOT be: you'll have to upgrade the processor to a basic AV192R before you start thinking about options; and I'd be crazy to spend upwards of £3000 just to install Dolby Headphone in an AV32R processor.

Now, if it turns out that the estimates in this thread so far are actually wrong and that an AV192R in its most basic configuration will only cost £3K-£4K, in other words the upgrade price will be <£1K, then that brings it back into the calculation again.

Nicolas, do your homework first. The AV192R is an AV32R with a new case twin sharks and a lot of modules. If all you want is the AV32R with Dolby headphone you might not need the additional casing of the 192R so you can upgrade the AV32R accordingly. Dont get hung up on the "its a different name therefore it's a different product" but if you're too stuborn to find out the details :rolleyes:

I was just trying to explain you probably dont want/need the 192R just maybe the twin sharks and the headphone upgrade but hey what do I care, your choice.

Steve
 
I believe Dr Zucker posted recently that the AV32R when upgraded with the twin SHARCs would be able to output Dolby Headphone as an option. You can use the tape outputs to power your headphones directly or though a headphone amp. If you're already using the tape output you should be able to use a Y connector to connect both, pretty sure there's no signal degredation apart from a 3dB drop in level.
 
Hi all!
Udo Zucker just posted the prices in his forum.
1. it looks bit more than people were expecting
2. seems it is more because av32r will be credited with retail price and not price paid (this should be checked but it sounded that way and could explain why "bit more")

This is what I was able to get out of last couple of postings there.
 
Some stuff shamelessly ripped from Tag McLaren's discussion forums....

AV32R Price
AV32R:bp-192 '7.1' THX Ultra + DTS-ES 6.1 Discrete: £3093.95

AV192R Price
Brand-new AV192R Starter-Kit: £5995.00
Upgrade from AV32R model above to AV192R Starter-Kit: £2901.05

option available when buying
Front panel flap with associated electronics: £275

options that can be fitted at any time
7.1 Balanced XLR option: £495
200MHz RGB Switcher with Sync Recovery: £449
Progressive Scan Option: £1095
........requires Video power supply: £145
........required RGB+ PSM/VSM Interface: £545
RS232/IR TX 3rd party controller: £395
FM Radio, twin input: £595
DAB Digital Radio: £695
Ac3-RF Laserdisk: £160
Dolby Headphone: £100
HDCD: £40
MPEG-2: £10

Prices not fixed yet
DVI Switcher with HDMI Interface
2048 lines Video Scaler

Nice AV192R features
THX Ultra2
Procesing power = 7 x AV32R
Room EQ included



There's no question that they're pitching this against the likes of Meridian 861, Lexicon MC-12 and Theta Casablanca. They even go so far as to quote some rival prices:


Lexicon
DC2: GBP 3800 (Source WHF Oct' 02)
MC1: GBP 5600 (Source WHF Oct' 02)
MC12: GBP 8100 (Source WHF Oct' 02)

Theta
Casa Nova II: GBP 4398 (source: Theta retailer)
Casa Blanca: GBP 6799 (source: Theta retailer)

Meridian
568: GBP 3885 (source: WHF)
861: GBP 7000+ (source: Meridian retailer)

Krell
HTS 7.1: GBP 8998 (source: Krell retailer)

Proceed
AVP2 BY: GBP 6895 (source: Proceed retailer)
 
NicolasB,

Those Theta prices are for the bare-bones. In the case of the Casablanca you wouldn't even be able to use it - you need at least 1 DAC card or digital output card installed to get a peep out of it. Cheapest 6 channel standard quality single ended card is £1190.

Real-world price ranges for Casanovas are £4398 - £6777, depending on options installed. For Casablanca 2's it's £7989 - £23,125. :eek:
 
Originally posted by NicolasB
AV192R with all options will be over £11000, of course.

some of the options, what about scaler, DVI switcher, no change fro £5k?

Charlie

I take it all back about what I said about Theta pricing!;)

The MPEG upgrade looks good value at £10 though, it's a pity I have it already.
 
Charlie

I take it all back about what I said about Theta pricing!

Yes, but that £23k is for 12 channels at 24/384!!!! Probably slight overkill for the sub channels! :devil:
 
Well, having just had my personal upgrade cost e-mailed me by Tag, I can safely say that I won't be upgrading my bog standard AV32 to AV192 - the cost, just over £5,000.

I guess there are people out there with that kind of money to burn otherwise they (Tag) wouldn't have set the prices as they have.
 
Well, I actually expected it to cost so much.

Only thing I am afraid of is that TAG planned with too many certain upgrades. Last two (PSM and Bp192) were apparently big success, this one might easy go another way because of pretty high margins.
It will certainly be interesting to follow what happens.
 

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