Spatial Audio Raven Preamp

@sjsfiveo Yes, price has very little relationship to sound quality beyond a certain point.  One walk through an audio show will make that abundantly clear.  The Revelation series project was about designing the best sounding preamp and amps that we could using ideas that Lynn has been working on for decades, that have their basis in wonderful circuits and approaches developed a LONG time ago.  We implemented those ideas with modern power supply, filament supply, transformer, and attenuator technology that I had been using for a number of years prior to that.  The idea was to build the best sounding preamp and amps we could and then price them based on the build cost and required profit margin for the manufacturer to stay in business, while paying real technicians in Utah, real living wages.  You really cannot build gear of this quality on a shoe string budget.  That said, the gear does not cost six figures, nor does it have to!   

I want to revisit what Lynn said about subtle content that is present in two channel recordings.  The content that gives the ethereal sense of space, and the very subtle reverb that is present from recording techniques or actually added by the producer.  I have owned really good stereos for years, both rebuilt vintage-based, and my own creations.   What the Raven (Revelation) preamp and the matching Blackbird amps do is to present this information.  It is not masked as in most systems, including some very good ones I have owned, and some very expensive ones I have heard at audio shows.  I am listening to the final versions of the Raven and Blackbird amps, and I hear these things that I have never heard before in recordings I am very familiar with.  It adds a whole new level of enjoyment and has been discussed, you can hear the intent of the musicians and the producer or recording engineer, and the room if the recording is from a live performance.   

The shoebox mono prototype amps mentioned by @sjsfiveo ​​​and ​@whitestix will give a portion of this effect and are very good.  The final version of the amps have it in spades.  We have improved both the preamp and amps just a wee bit since the Dallas show and I am looking forward to the next demo of the Revelation series so that others can hear what I get to enjoy in my living room daily.   I completely understand that a $19,995 pair of amps is outside the budget of many folks, but I do thoroughly enjoy playing them for people so that they can hear what is possible and what we have been up to.   Most people (myself included up to two years ago) have never heard this sort of presentation.  From a design standpoint, I understand exactly why all of our choices work well with this circuit idea, and why the system sounds as it does.  But hearing it is quite astounding to me.  It just vanishes and leaves the music hanging space for you to enjoy.

After years of pondering next move....Called and they had one left. Got it and AMPs too! Kid in a candy shop. 

Hope you enjoy it!

Don Sachs, Spatial Audio, and I are right at the beginning of the production curve, with the preamps a little ahead of the Blackbird power amps. The designs are finalized, stable, and several steps more advanced than what was shown at the Seattle Audio Festival last June.

Both are quite different than other tube audio products that mostly date from late 1950's designs. They are a combination of Bell System/Western Electric line amplifiers and 21st Century computer-designed transformers and power supplies.

@wsrrsw Yes, I heard someone bought the preamp in the last of the old style cases, and one of the last two pairs of amps in the old style cases.   The amps are electrically the same and so is the preamp.  Please report back once you have them up and running and have 10-20 hours on them.  Please let us know what other gear  you are using with them.

Thanks!