TW Acustic Raven One owners

Hi Gabriele,

First of all Happy New Year to you, Mark and Dave as it's altready 2009 here in Australia. ;)
Thanks for the tip about loosening the Stillpoint feet BTW.

I got my Raven One just before you after a 4 months wait. Worth the long wait and some. Understated and solid engineering.Nice.

I'm using a 10.5 inch Jelco S arm ( similar to the Vivid but obviously longer) with an Ortofon Kontrapunkt B at the moment but i feel the Jelco arm is holding back the performance somewhat.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a52/jasnev/Hi%20Fi%20and%20Horology/raven1insitufront.jpg

But i did order a Graham Phantom B44 back in early August soon after i ordered the table mainly due to views expressed by others and the popularity of the pairing. I'm hopeful of getting it soon and hopefully it will bring another level of all round improvement. On top of that i also bought a mint Micro Seiki MA 505 Mk 3 tonearm on impulse from a HK ebay seller this week. The table will be a Raven 2 soon enough and it will be interesting to compare them.

Interestingly, i've noticed you're interested in the AT33PTG too on another thread as i just bought one from ebay this week after procastinating for a few months.
It's a popular choice on pinkfishmedia.net and that's how i became aware of it after going through the giant Raven one thread there.

In the long run, i might go for a Dynavector XV1s when my bank balance has recovered from all the upgrade.

regards,
jasper

I've had my Raven one for about 1 year.
I use the Graham phantom arm and Dynavector XX2MkII.
I could not be happier. A perfect match that makes real music. I can't imagine a better match.....weeellll, maybe a cartridge upgrade when the XX2 is "done"

Enjoy and be confident it really dosen't get much better.

Hello all....

Jasper,
Your going to love the Graham Phantom, set up and fine adjustments is a dream to work with.

This arm on the Raven One is "Killer"

If you are not aware, ONE of the very best set up tool's on the Planet for your cartridge is the MintLp arc protractor at MintLp.com.

Specifically made for your table, inexpensive, laboratory precision made tool , well thought out, easy to use with Excellent instruction's, quick fantastic support if needed and free quick shipping from Hong Kong.

Minting your cartridge WILL FLOOR YOU with the enormous improvement in performance over and above the excellent supplied Graham set up jig's.

All for a $100.00 plus and some patience from you.

Much has been said here on Audiogon.

I totally agree with Stiltskin about MintLP Tractors .. I'm a Mint addict :-)

One other fact that I would like to share that is pretty much common knowledge among experienced people within this hobby.
However once in a while I see this costly mistake made time and time again.
In fact I made this mistake myself many years ago.

Most recently here on Audiogon a fellow member has mounted a Dynavector XV-1 on a run of the mill tonearm that retails for $700.00.

In fact the retail price of this very good cartridge alone is more then his entire front end.

Any superb tonearm with any decent cartridge mounted on it will far out play ANY mediocre tonearm with any of the popular expensive cartridges of today.