New Raven Audio CeLest Monitor coming this fall.


I spent over an hour on the phone with my friend James Connell just talking audio stuff and about life in general. If you ever get a chance to get Jame, Bryant or Raven Dave on the phone they are fascinating people and have accomplished such amazing things in the face of adversity and a pandemic.

SoI called to thank James for fixing up a Blackhawk 3.1 I bought on the used market that had some issues from the previous owner. We got to talking about the CeLest towers that I own and James dropped that they are coming out with a CeLest 2Way Monitor and it will be available in the late summer/early fall.
I told James I was really interested and would love to get pair to send to my son at Norte Dame (PHD Candidate). He said I will do you one better. He is going to send the prototype CeLest Monitor to live with me for a couple of weeks to review. How cool is that?

He asked me to run it through the full gambit of gear I have and share the result, well here.

So I should have them in a few weeks when I come in off my Central American Tour.

More to come.
128x128earlflynn
@erangel I understand and an acquaintance of mine had some issues with James.Will not go into the details however I now have no reason to doubt the validity of your complaint and I will steer clear of these people.
This person even chirped off on in the comments section of Part Time Audiophile that posted a review of the Blackhawk and his post was deleted. He did say the editor sent him an email and wanted to hear the details of his complaint. He just let it die he felt it was a waste of time when PTA killed his post.

Ethics and integrity is very important and seems to lacking at times.
@erangel -- My last post was not meant to cast doubt on the validity of your complaint. I have no reason to believe you were anything less than truthful. I was just presenting another data point which was very different than yours obviously. As you know, the cost of almost everything has gone up due to supply chain issues. It is entirely possible that Raven could not have built the speakers at the price they quoted earlier due to increased cost of parts. The US manufacturers are at a greater disadvantage due to higher transportation and logistics costs. I guess that’s what you get when you outsource everything to another country.

With the onslaught of lower priced Chinese audio, I feel that US audio manufacturers are a dying breed. It was hard enough to compete due to higher labor costs in the US, and unfortunately the recent supply chain disruption can be the final nail in the coffin, especially for little guys like Raven Audio. There is no excuse for how James behaved with you, and I’m with you on that. But we don’t know what kind of pressure these folks are under. We are all human, and sometimes stress can make us behave in ways that don’t reflect who we really are. The James I dealt was a nice guy willing to go out of his way to accommodate his customers. I’m just surprised how he behaved with you. Again, not doubting your side of the story.

I sincerely hope that James or one of the other folks at Raven can find a way to make this right for you. Good luck and thank you for your service!
@arafiq, I appreciate your response and please know that I took no offense to your previous post.

Since my initial post, I received a nastygram text message from James Connell at Raven where he goes so far as to question my integrity and even my military service.  It is really quite unfortunate, but it only serves to confirm my summation of his character.

Take care.
@erangel -- sorry to hear about how Raven Audio is behaving towards you. It's bad enough to treat regular customers this way, but to have this kind of attitude towards our service members is just unacceptable. I have no idea what's going on with James.