Spatial Audio Raven Preamp

I heard the powered ATC monitors at the last Rocky Mountain Audio Festival, and they were some of the best speakers at the show. The ATC midrange driver, in particular, is a legend in the speaker industry, and ATC did a really good job with the active crossover and the internal power amps.

The Raven can easily power 20 to 50 feet of balanced cable with its 4.5:1 step-down output transformer, so it should be an excellent match for the ATC monitors. Studio-grade Mogami or Belden XLR cables should be quite good, but there’s Cardas, Dueland, or Anticables if you want to spend more. I would stay away from high-capacitance cables that look like garden hoses. Capacitance is not your friend when it comes to long cable runs.

Thanks for the information, Lynn, especially on the cable recommendations. I can't wait to hook up the preamp. 

Yeah, stay away from the garden hoses and faux snakes, no matter what the reviewer says, or in what magazine. Simple is good, less capacitance per foot is better. The studios don’t use garden hoses or faux snakes, why should you?

Many of the reviews of $5000 cables are using them as system-wide tone controls. Wrong approach. Cables just need to get out of the way, nothing more. If EQ belongs anywhere, it's in the speaker crossover, where it can do the most good.

You can make very nice xlr runs out of Duelund tinned stranded, but it is spendy these days and you are talking long runs.   I use Paul's anticables in my system, but they are only 3-4 ft runs.  If you are running 8-10 ft over to a powered speaker that could get expensive as well.  Belden wire is quite cost effective usually if you hunt around for sources.  There are a million pro audio cables in the world, and that is essentially what you are doing.  I would start there and see how it sounds.  Like Lynn said, avoid super thick "audiophile" cables.

Thank you for the advice Don and Lynn. The Paul anticables do sound enticing.