*Warning* a tad lengthy!
I had another lesson in Raven ownership the other day. I just could not get over how slow the perceived pace of LP's sounded. Everything sounded as if it were being played as a funeral march and I was hearing what sounded like "wow" (low note wavering) especially towards the last two tracks of an LP. Now my Michell Orbe never sounded slow and was a great pairing with my Naim amp/preamp. And I never detected any "wow" type fluctuations unless the LP had a off center spindle hole. The other very curious thing was that my room has a notorious upper frequency bump with notable reflection traits, and the Naim gear I have takes no prisoners on poor recordings ie., 60s-80's Rock. So, when these traits vanished I was shocked. Had the Orbe added that much extraneous noise to the playback? But it sounded so slow paced, no drive, no rhythm. None of this was mentioned on the Naim Forums, always good reviews. After days of head banging and freaking out, I was about to call High Water Sound when I remembered a review that mentioned something similar and it involved adding too much oil. I re-read the review and recalled how despite my best efforts to use very little oil, I sprayed too oil and did find a small puddle at the base of the bearing a few days later which I cleaned up. So, I removed the platter, cleaned both bearings/shafts and re-oiled very, very, lightly. NOW the rhythm and drive were much better, though not Orbe beating, HF extension returned since some of the HF nasties my room is noted for were back. Interestingly though it lost a bit of sound stage width/height and some detail. The perceived "wow" improved but did not disappear.
Raven traits: inner detail retrieval is greater vs. Orbe and VTA changes are MUCH more noticeable. In fact, I believe my VTA settings are quite different (higher) than on my Orbe. I'd have to pull the arm to get a comparison.
Comments appreciated, especially from Sonnyboy1956, former Orbe owner.
