The tascam is certainly not a bad board at all. Some of the older Tascam models are actually fairly well respected. Sadly
the M3500 was not one of those, but certainly not a shabby board at all. Much better than most of the current $1500 and under options available (at least in my opinion). The Scorpion is also a little hit and miss. There are many people out there that really like them, and many people that absolutely don't. I used to own a scorpion, and sometimes I really miss it. Its a very round warm sound, with a little bit of HF extension, but not as much as a lot of more current models. The EQ's on it are very easy to use and natural sounding which really makes it fairly flexible. Keep in mind though that the TAC is a very heavy console. They even have wood sides on them. Parts are still available for the TAC Scorpions from a couple of different AMEK repair houses. The power supplies are decent, and easy to work on. The TAC channel strips can be a little stiff to get out of their connectors (which are mounted to the frame) but there is plenty of space on the TAC channel strips so working on them is pretty easy. The TAC Scorpions are also highly mod-able which is nice. The meterbridge on the TAC is probably their biggest weakpoint. I don't know why, but it is pretty common for some LED's to kind of supernova and just stay lit. It may just be 1 or 2 LED's on a single channel (out of about 21), or it may be more. In my experience, when this happens, the meters will still work, just not all of the lights shut off. This is a pretty widespread and common issue that most people just live with. One other thing I love about the TAC is the headroom. It isn't the quietest console in the world, but the preamps can be driven pretty far into the red, and as they get farther in they gently start adding a mild distortion which I found myself really enjoying on certain tracks. Every so often I would purposely push a track into that area to give it some mid frequency grain and fuzz.
Despite all of the known TAC issues, I would still go for the TAC over the Tascam. The price you mentioned is about an average price for a 24x8 TAC Scorpion. If it has recently been gone though though, that makes it a bit if a better deal. Does it still have dirty pots? If so, I would be cautious about someone stating that the board had been gone through. My guess is that it was not done by a real tech if it still has dirty pots. If anyone had the channels out to inspect the board and found these dirty pots, you would imagine they would take the few minutes necessary to clean them. If it hasn't been cleaned, I would highly suggest you spend $40 on some Caig products and spend a day cleaning your channel strips. The pots will clean up, and will actually feel a lot better, as well as the faders.
Good luck, and I hope some of this helps.
