Raven Audio Tube amps

Well, I just auditioned a set of Legacy Audio Focus SE with Raven amplification at Dave's place, and, well, I don't even know where to begin or what to say.  I've always had SS amplification and pretty much mid-fi equipment at that, so it's not like I have much, if any, listening experience with tube amps.  But I have heard lots of speakers demoed with SS amplification over the years, some of which sounded very good.  Dave played CD quality tracks off his computer, no high rez.  Suffice it to say, I've never heard CD level audio sound anywhere close to this natural.  Ella Fitzgerald seemed right in front of me.  Bass like crazy, and with impact.

What I heard today is certainly eye opening.  There is no way to assign the percent of relative contribution to the awesome sound for each component involved, all of which are orders of magnitude better than what I currently have.  I've just never heard any reproduced music sound that good.  I attended the East Texas Symphony(better than you might think) last Saturday, so I have a very recent experience with live, large scale music.  What really got my attention is cymbals, which sounded pretty much exactly like they did at the symphony.  Very open and "airy".  The Focus SE are certainly excellent speakers, but my suspicion is that the Raven amplification played a huge part in the incredible sound quality.  Now, I'm going to have to re-think my whole approach to audio. 

@mtrot ...If you liked tube amplification, you would love a really well-made tube-powered CD player. 

mtrot: much of what you write about why you like the Focus SE is a result of the speakers themselves independent of the choice of tube amplification. The Raven's are reported to be great amps but I will tell you I've heard the exact same positive attributes you talk about and more out of my old Focus SEs and now my AERIS with pure solid state amplification (Edge NL12.1, Maker Audio NL14 and especially an Esoteric A-02 stereo amp that is the star of the show in my system for a couple of years now...

@styxtrekr (I've been away from this thread...)  You asked: "What cables and interconnects did you settle on"?

I am using Homegrown Audio "Silver Lace" RCA interconnects which are silver wire Litz configuration cables. They are very delicate but I am happy with the sound. For balanced interconnects, I'm using Silnote "Morpheus Reference" XLR cables. For speakers, after listening to multiple cables, I am very happy and stayed with my AntiCables. 

I am happy with these choices and do not think I can appreciably get an improvement in my current listening spaces. If I went wild and made substantial improvements in the physical spaces my systems are in, then I think I would consider further cable tweets — but for now I am probably wise to avoid chasing shadows in a shadow-rich listening space.