Upgrade from TW Acustic Raven AC-3 to what?

A cow will never be worth the price of a horse. But maybe in a world of blind it will be different.
The typical audiophile will sit in front of his machine and will think
- Yes, that is it. A review winner. Component of the year. I don't hear it, but I spent so much money, it has to be better. the other ones say the same...
The Listener sits in front and thinks
- Man, so much money for such a cheap made unit
The Collector sits in front and thinks
- Yes, it looks good and no matter what is out there, I am the first
The experienced Audiophile sits in front and thinks
- Great. Let's go for Lunch
Times are tough, but modern

Allectiong

The Raven-AC-1 that i have been using over the last few years is an incredibly engaging TT.this is a result of its neutrality and ability to manifest the micro and macrodynamics of the music. it really is a neutral table and chances are you are hearing something that is not optimum.

Try relooking at your cartridge vtf and vta, vtf being a huge factor. Sounds like you may on the high side. Your tonearm may be to low. Try playing with vta.

Try placing record directly on the platter. You may be hearing resonances introduced by a mat. Make sure you compensate for vta if the thixkness of the mat is large.

As dgad mentions, optimize azimuth and anti skate.

Try experimenting with all these parameters. These have major impacts on the sound.

I was lsitening to my system friday and was amazed at how easily the Raven AC allows the music to come through once everything is as optimum as possible. Lightnin hopkins, john lee hooker,sonny/brownie, muddy where right there. The energy they were puttin down was NOT lost by the Raven ac-1.

You will get a lot of suggestions. Start with the basics. Make broad adjustments to understand the ramifications of the range of settings. Then fine tune. I dont think the table is the issue; however you may want to try one motor. Also, make sure you have the new motor controller. Big improvement.

Pardon me if you are seasoned in these matters and you have tried all of this.

Andrew

I assume that you are getting a lot more bass and sound staging from you CD player so you are sure that you are not limited by your amplifier preamplifier and speakers.

Another way to look at this is the following. If the
table did really have the signature you are describing, then you would tend to hear that to a large extent independent of changing some of the other tonearm/cartridge and system parameters. Well you might say that through "system synergy" you might be able to strike the right balance. In this case, if you were correct in the TW signature (which I don't think you are) you would have to get an oppositely colored piece of equipment to compensate for this. I don't think that would be wise.

The table is a lot more neutral than you think.

Based on some of Raul's points, I have been experimenting with platter mat. in fact, no mat at all. Try this and you will be surpirsed. also try lowering your VTF. My guess is you are too high.

I get very dynamic, open sound with detailed and extended bass without any overhang or sluggishness. I can easily get what you're hearing by using a mat, too high VTF and tow low SRA.

Happy experimenting.

Aoliviero, Difference between your Raven AC and Alectiong's Raven AC = 2 extra motors on his. That's why I suggest he should try driving the platter with only one motor. And you are correct, platter mat can make just the kind of subtle difference that Alectiong is looking for, but I thought the Raven AC platter was meant to be used with no mat at all, or a supplied special mat. And who could argue about the necessity to set VTA, VTF, alignment, etc carefully?