TW Acustic Raven One owners

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.

After discussing with Thomas at TW, I went for an Ortofon 309S and am very happy with it, mounting a Zyx Airy 3. I don't think it is far off the ultimate arms, at a fraction of the price. My Raven 1 came with stock Millenium feet and I find Standard, not OEM stillponts, a big improvement, even with a wall shelf.

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.

True 30 years ago and truer today, specifically because today's best catridges are more revealing of flaws in surrounding components than the best cartridges of 30 years ago.

Very wise advice, and perhaps the most frequently abused/ignored/unknown.

This isn't to say don't buy an XV-1S, Transfiguration Orpheus, upper model ZYX or other top cartridge. It is to say that the rest of your vinyl front end (including the phono stage) must be at an appropriate level first or you may be disappointed.