Raven vs. Verdier La Platine

My Verdier La Platine with a 12" Da Vinci Grandezza arm made a few believers of my friends that bought the Raven with Triplaner VII.
If you do go with the Raven - get the Grandezza as it's probably the best arm made.

One of my audiophile friends made a comparison in his home, he owns a PV with SME 3012 and got a Raven AC with Schroeder Reference for loan.
The Schroeder was fitted with a very expensive cartridge (XV-1s), his was a cheap one, I modified 103R.
He told me, he prefers the PV, the "musical flow" with all - totally - different LP's (Classic, Rock, Folk, Jazz...) is totally different. It goes totally out of way in the reproduction, no stress, no pushing and it is uncolored. The Raven is a "fast" table, even Mozart is fast on it. No "timbre" in voicing ...I listened to a few Ravens and Verdiers, but always in different Systems and this is my opinion, too.
The Raven has the advantage for more arms (idea is a based on Micro Seiki).
Well, the report from my buddy is 1 year old, he told me, he never looked back when the Raven left his home. He replaced the SME with a FR-64s and told me, this is really superior to all his former set ups.
I agree with Paladin, a good PV is one of the very few real top Turntables. With a 12 DaVinci really something special.
Or with FR-66s :)

The UK importer of Verdier and Raven is one and the same GT Audio. I don't want to misquote him, but since he has taken on TW, I don't think he has sold a Verdier. The latter is still a good table, but TW is better value and superlatively built. I bought the Raven one and it is one of 2 items in my set up which is not changing any time soon.