Spatial Audio Raven Preamp

There is a whole subculture of modding the classic Klipsch products ... Cornwall (probably the easiest to tame), La Scala, Belle Klipsch, and of course the Klipschorn. Look up "Klipsch Forums" and off you go. Classic Klipsch are famed for dynamics but the frequency response can be sort of uneven in the 1950’s manner.

Aside from response irregularities, the quality of the factory crossover parts is kind of marginal. But there are at least two different vendors selling premade souped-up crossovers for each of the classic Klipsch models ... no soldering needed.

The KHorn definitely requires corner placement in order for much bass below 60 Hz ... the corner of the room completes the horn mouth, expanding it several times. Some folks actually use false corners, which work fine, provided the false wall is reasonably rigid and doesn’t vibrate.

I use loudspeakers that are designed to be close to room corners, but the room in our new home could not accommodate that setup. While losing the corners decreased bass and the overall energy, I did gain some detail as a benefit. After doing a lot of research, I wound up adding, in my case, custom open baffle subs even though my loudspeakers go down to 30Hz as-is. It’s an unconventional setup as the subs are in-between my loudspeakers and my centered audio rack. However, this not only solved my bass/energy issue due to the loss of corners, but the subs strengthened the system’s foundation, and now it has more detail, sounds bigger, and retains the relaxed sound that I love.

I am also very interested in the Raven preamplifier.

Kenny 

The Raven design is stabilized and they are in production at Spatial Audio Labs in Salt Lake City. Don Sachs lives in British Columbia in Canada, I live on the outskirts of Denver in Colorado, and we both communicate with Spatial on a regular basis.

I am hoping to receive word that my Raven will be shipping by the end of this week.  I plan to post my experiences here after at least 20 hours of burn-in.

Hi remember me, I started this thread. 😁 Anyway, I finally got my Coda s5.5 amp introduced into my system. (In user systems) I replaced my VAC Renaissance 70/70 amp and VAC Cla1Mk III preamp. I use the Legacy Wavelet II as the preamp/crossover/DSP room correction now. With very little time on the rig it sounds very good but I think I would like to add a little "Tube magic" back into the system's midrange and soundstage if possible. So the question is for those that now have the Raven, does the preamp have that characteristic at all? I remember before when I had to run my Focus XD's full range the VAC Preamp added just the right amount of tube flavor to satisfy, so looking for a bit of that. I don't see any reviews about the preamp in this thread so far, just checking.  Thank you!

BTW, I am saving for the Raven, but had a few set backs that detracted from my savings for it, but back on track now.