TW Acoustic Raven owners

I was wondering about you and your cartridge situation this weekend Rick. It is a shame such a nice rig has to sit idle for so long. You paid the entry fee, hope you get into the show soon.

Good idea to keep the thread in one place. Now if I can gather all my posts from other threads & put them here. Oh Well.

Let me start going down the line. My Raven AC replaced a Nottingham Hyperspace. No slouch at all. The Raven is in a nutshell, less bloated, more dynamic, and incredibly neutral. Now the Hyperspace is an incredible table so don't think it is bloated. Only in comparison to a table double the price does it show as such. Neutrality is a tough call on a turnatble. Suffice it to say, to me based on the changes to everything associated w. analogue there has been no other sound coming forth other than the accesories. This includes, the mat or no mat (I use a Living Voice Mystic, but no Mat seems just fine to me). Clamp or not. I will evaluate a few soon. Stillpoints. Well, what a pain to take them out after you put them in so no extended a/b comparison. They did improve things though and it was not subtle.

Now to the juice. I believe strongly in isolation. So all you people who want a Rockport or Caliburn, just buy a Raven & some isolation. I bet it is incredibly close. Maybe missing only the Vacuum hold down feature............Wait. I use a record outer ring when I am not lazy. And for how great it sounds, I am incredibly lazy. There are a few still available from after market suppliers. Thier descriptions say it all. Just the fear of ruining a stylus is a problem. No drinking while using the outer ring.

For tonearms, I have tried a few. SME V. Great arm. Let everyone criticize it all they want. It still is a great set & forget arm that really does fit well with many cartridges in lower price points.
Ikeda 407 12inch silver. Thanks Raul. Great arm. Especially w. Koetsu. Enough said.
Schroder SQ. Many have heard the good & bad. The good, music, images floating in air, flow etc. The bad, lacking ultimate dynamics and a pain to setup. Well, setup needs a few lessons. Once you get it down, it is no different than any other arm. This arm has my ZYX Universe. What a wonderful partnership. I originally tried a XV-1s on it but after hearing the ZYX made the switch. I still miss the XV-1s in some ways. I also put the Jade on it. More dynamics w. the Jade on the Ikeda. But wow did you feel the performers are in the room. So much body. A great experience.

The XV-1s, & ZYX did time in my SME V & Ikeda. The XV-1s never found ultimate happiness. The ZYX was very happy in the SME V but more happy much more happy in the SQ.

As for isolation, I am using a Promethean Base from Machina Dynamica. Not much money & does a wonderful job. Honestly, in my room, no listening really let me hear fully into the music until I added the isolation base.

And now I am waiting on an Phantom to mount some of these MM cartridges that once again Raul got me to try. Lets see. Cheap experiments can go far.

Hi Rick

Too bad with that stylus, hope you will be up and running soon.

Theo

Hi Dgad

Thanks for sharing your experience with the different arms and cartridges. I checked out the Machina Dynamica base. It is interesting it works for a TT, it really looks very wobbley. But it is cheap, and if it works good, that's great. Hvae you tried other isolation platforms?
As you may have noticed, I currently use an EDR.9 cartridge while I wait for my Phantom arm. Considering the price, I really think it plays very good. And I like the idea that there may be other NOS cartridges out there that will be fun to try out. May I ask what MM carts you are about to try out?

Theo

Hello,

I read the other post with regards to the Raven One, and that people have notices slight differences in sound with and without the millenium mat. Do you find such differences with the Raven AC? Do you use it with or without the mat?

Just curious - David