Raven Audio Nighthawk

I just placed my order for a Blackhawk Mk III. James was great to work with and I'm really looking forward to it. Thanks to everyone who posted a helpful comment.


Oz

I owned a nighthawk and then a blackhawk.  seriously good sounding amps but this is when they were offering premium nos svet power tubes and mullard, rca, amperex small signal tubes.  
i have not heard the latest stock tube configurations but nos phillips and new EH tubes do not excite me.  
it certainly can sound amazing with the right tubes as long as you are not expecting large scale dynamics from typical 84 to 86 db speakers.   higher efficiency speakers are a must for top range sound, a compromise some are willing to make.  
a nice pair of spendor d7.2 and yeah, these amps can deliver the goods. 

I have owned a Blackhawk MK3 for a few months. It's very nice, refined, and responds well to tube rolling. But, personally, I feel that it does not rise up to the level of hype created around the Raven products, at least the Avian series. It competes favorably with Primaluna but is not better or worse than other tube amps in this price category.

I know that Raven likes to claim that the 20 watts produced by the Blackhawk can be compared to 100 solid state watts. Nope. The first 30 watts in pure class A that my Luxman produces run circles around the Blackhawk, not just in the bass department but also soundstage, imaging, and ... well, pretty much all areas. Secondly, the separate subwoofer connection is rather gimmicky in my opinion. For example, using REL's preferred method of speakon/high level connection still sounds better.

Don't get me wrong, this is still a very nice component, and very good value for the money. But giant slayer or 'punch above its class' it's not. It's made in the USA, and competes favorably with similar priced amps from other countries, both in terms of quality and cost. This was honestly my motivation to buy, not the hype.

Disclaimer: I have been using it with low sensitivity speakers (Harbeth and Sonus Faber), so it might be a completely different beast with higher efficiency ones. But it certainly doesn't have the juice to drive low efficiency speakers to their full potential.

I had a Nighthawk and I couldn't return it fast enough. Like someone said earlier, from what I heard, it was way over-hyped.
I know everyone's ears and associated equipment are different, but it left me shaking my head as to what all the commotion was about.
A lot of people love their stuff and that's cool. To each their own.
I'm sure I'm in the minority here but the OP posted an inquiry so I'm responding.