Spatial Audio Raven Preamp


Spatial is supposed to be shipping the first "wave" from pre orders of this preamplifier in May, does anyone have one on order? Was hoping to hear about it from AXPONA but I guess they were not there. It's on my list for future possibilities. It seems to check all my boxes if I need a preamp.

128x128fthompson251

fthomsom251, you bring up a good point. When Don and I ditched the coupling capacitors, that pretty much got rid of the most obvious way of "tuning" the Raven. You see, nearly all coupling caps have a sound, one way or another. Get rid of them, there isn't much left to twiddle with. The interconnect might be about it.

@fthompson251 No over basseness. (If that’s a word) Uncoloured. Feel no need to tube roll but naturally will someday. 

I now have about 100 hours on my Raven and fell i caan objectively give a review.  First my system; my amps are Quicksilver V4's, my phonostsge is a Modwright PH 9.0 XLT, my preamp is the Raven, my turntable is a VPI HW19 mk4. the tonearm is a Woody Stringe Theory with a Soundsmith MIMC cartridge.  

The addition of the Raven has provided an unbelievable sound stage.  
The highs are great as is the midrange.  Thee bass is much deeper  and clearer than ever before.  These were the major things I was looking for and got with the Raven>  

I also have an Oppo 205 and it also performs with all the positive things I have listed.. To elaborate a little more I was very happy that the soundstage spread out over my listening area.  The real plus is the bass improvement.  II is tight and quick. 

All in all it is very musical and very enjoyable which i can and have listened to for hours at a time.  I will say at this time this is the last preamp I will ever buy.  I hope this helps in your decision making procees.

Richard

Thanks for your comments Richard. It is likely you will still experience improvement in sound quality over time. From past experience the time to stabilize is different… between components… up to 1,000 hours. 

@rav6258   Thank you for your comments, I am saving to buy the Raven this coming spring and this verifies some of the traits I am looking for.