CD/SACD-проигрыватели и транспорты — Taga Harmony TCD-70T

The TCD-70T is a CD player with a vacuum tube output stage from TAGA Harmony, a Polish brand that concentrates on affordable hi-fi products. It plays CD-Audio discs only, including CD-R and CD-RW, and does not read SACD. The player appeared at the start of 2025, priced at GBP 599 in the UK and around USD 700 in the US. It comes in black or silver, with a metal chassis, an aluminium front panel and a window through which the lit tubes can be seen.

Key specs that matter

The ES9018 from the ESS SABRE family, a 32-bit chip with Hyperstream II design and its own time-domain jitter removal, performs the digital to analogue step. Frequency response is 20 Hz to 20 kHz within 1 dB, THD is below 0.005% at 1 kHz and 0 dBFS, signal-to-noise ratio is above 110 dB A-weighted and crosstalk is below -100 dB at 1 kHz. The rear panel carries balanced XLR and unbalanced RCA analogue sockets, and optical and coaxial digital outputs carry 16-bit, 44.1 kHz data. A 3.5 mm headphone socket with its own level knob delivers up to 30 mW into 32 ohm or 50 mW into 600 ohm. The manual gives dimensions of 94 x 430 x 320 mm including feet and a weight of 5.8 kg, and power draw is 100 W at most and under 0.5 W in standby.

Engineering and use context

Two 6N2 tubes in ceramic sockets form the output stage for the RCA sockets only, so the XLR output bypasses the tubes and the owner can choose between the two paths by cable. TAGA lists 6AX7, 6H2N, 6N2J, 6N2P, 6N2P-EB, 6N2P-EV, 6N2pi and 6SS41 as compatible replacements, and spare tubes are not included. After the DAC comes a 2-pole fully differential linear-phase Bessel filter, chosen to keep phase response flat. A Sunplus SPHE8104G servo chip with error correction controls the laser, and a toroidal transformer powers the player. Internal wiring to the RCA and XLR outputs is oxygen-free copper, and the RCA sockets are machined gold-plated brass. The headphone output does not mute the rear outputs. The player drops into standby after about 20 minutes without playback, and a brightness control dims the display and can switch off the tube window lighting. Up to 24 tracks can be programmed, and A-B, single-track and whole-disc repeat are available from the supplied remote. Mains input is 220 to 240 V at 50 Hz.

Pairing

Either analogue output suits an integrated amplifier or preamplifier with line inputs, and the coaxial or optical output lets an external DAC or a digital amplifier take over conversion from the internal ES9018, leaving the transport and servo to read the disc.

Alternatives

The TAGA Harmony TCD-50 is a CD player that uses the same ES9018 DAC with RCA and XLR outputs and a 35 W toroidal transformer.