The "one step up" nets you their in-house hand made caps and other seriously upgraded parts. Being surprised tells me you have little first hand experience with just how much this matters. I'm not the least bit surprised.
Raven Audio Nighthawk VS Blackhawk
Now that I've owned both the Raven Audio Nighthawk (11 months) and the Blackhawk (2 months) I can confidently say the Blackhawk is transcendently better. I know this even though my near flagship Yamaha S2100 has been in the shop this entire time (chip delays) and I've been listening to an Oppo CD player (lower level) and a Uturn Orbit turntable , Ortofon Blue. Need I say more? Here's how I described the difference...the Nighthawk (and every system I've ever owned) seemed to present the music in a grid sound stage. Each instrument/voice would come at you through a cohesive platform. But now, each instrument and vocal appears in its own environment as the recording mics capture each unique contributor to a song. Honestly, at first, it felt a little disconcerting. All my audiophile life "my stereo" produced an homogenized package of musical sound that "represented" a musical event. But now, I feel like I've snuck into a recording session and am constantly shocked by the tangible realism of the experience. Maybe my system has finally ascended to a level commonly realized by others in this hobby, but I've been dabbling here a while and frankly never imagined a mechanical electronic device could reproduce music to this realism. Blown away, and no its not the 'adult beverage'!