Spatial Audio Raven Preamp

wsrrsw,

I have been following this thread for a while and the reviews of the Raven and Blackbirds are very good or excellent. It will pair with Clayton's Caladan.

@phono2024 

sure, I am biased because I designed them, but in my system with 95 dB speakers,

the Raven and Blackbird combo is dead silent idling away.  I can put my ear to any of the drivers on the speaker and barely tell the system is on.  Hiss will not be an issue unless a tube is failing.

Kind of expected because:

1) the specialized damper diode rectifiers have very soft switching compared to solid-state diodes, thus much less 50/60 Hz switching noise radiated into the rest of the circuit and out the AC power cord

2) the regulated high voltage B+ power supplies have an astounding 130 dB of noise rejection from AC line noise

3) there is an another layer of VR-tube shunt regulation for the B+ power of each channel, good for about 20 to 30 dB of added isolation

4) All heaters are fed with 6.3 volts of regulated DC

5) last but not least, balanced operation of the 6SN7 circuit provides an additional 30 to 35 dB of noise and distortion rejection, without requiring feedback.

That’s why the Raven (and Blackbird) cost a bit more than other preamps and power amps. Each Blackbird power amp does all this rigamarole three times, with KT88 and 300B power tubes, which is why it’s priced where it is.

Hello Don and Lynn,

Thank you for your additional info regarding the Raven and Blackbirds.

I have placed an order for the Raven preamp, with Linlai 6SN7 tubes, cherry finish. It will be build in the next manufacturing cycle and delivery date is expected in November/December.

I am looking forward to listening to the Raven in my set-up. The Caladans is 93dB sensitivity into 4 ohms. I can only imagine it is very very good sounding, given all that has been said about it.

BTW, given that the Raven has such good noise rejection components, is it necessary to use audiophile grade power cord in place of the stock power cord that is supplied with it? Just curious.

Thanks.

@phono2024 

I stopped shipping cords with my builds as people always tossed the cheapo one and used something better, and I was tired of the waste.  I suspect Spatial has the same policy, so you probably should enquire.  I know Lampizator doesn't ship cords with their DACs.  Honestly, any of the $50+ entry level "audiophile" cords will be far better than the cheap computer grade ones that come with most gear.  It is the standard N American 3 prong male connector.  I would just order some half decent cord.  You don't need to go crazy.  Many of us have a bit of a collection of them, so you may already have something to use in your stash.