Raven Blackhawk LE... am I going to be disappointed?

chicagoblue,

Everyone is stupid for making low impedance speakers when they can design the same speaker with a higher impedance. Especially bad are wide swings. Now I am not saying that low imp. or wide swings arent sometimes the only way to create a design, but in almost every case, higher impedance, stable loads are much easier for all amps to drive and will sound better due to the ease on the amplifier. I can think of only one designer that may claim his amps sound better with low impedance loads. 

So you ask the designers of amplifiers about speaker design. Fascinating. What do the designers of toasters think, I wonder?   

Meanwhile, back in the world of sense and logic, we ask speaker builders about speakers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMAO9LPsups

I have had a Raven Nighthawk 3.1 for almost four months now. First tube amp I have ever had. I love it! Sounded good right out of the box. After a couple of conversations with Dave, I made a couple of tube changes. Now it blows me away. Speakers are KEF R3, not an efficient speaker. I have a medium size room. The Nighthawks 20 watts are pretty amazing. Plenty loud enough, plenty of thump. Someday I will move up the ladder, but I am enjoying my music so much now that it will probably be awhile before I do! Totally happy with Raven, Dave, and Jim. Great overall experience. 

Compared to your other amps, yes you WILL be disappointed by the Raven. Have not actually heard a Raven, but 20 or even 30 watts is not going to cut it with 88dB speakers. I disagree with MC's comment about 20 tube watts is comparable 50-100 SS watts, NO way...

Yes way. Based on extrapolation. Several different 50-60 watt tube amps run with different speakers produced bass at least as good as 150-200 watt solid state amps. Compared in the same system. (Part of why I bought them.) With tube amps the ones with really high quality transformers tend to be best at this. Raven uses exceptionally high quality transformers. Allowing for this a 20 watt Raven being equivalent in perceived power to a 50-100 watt solid state is about right.

Compare and contrast this experience and practical reasoning with, "yes you WILL be disappointed by the Raven. Have not actually heard...." Wonderful. Have you tried using all caps to write other uninformed ideas? Does all caps somehow endow the words with gravitas and credibility?