Raven Audio service - what's not to like?


I want to take the time to let our community know that while service may not be a deal breaker, it certainly is if you are looking for an audio partner. My hats off to the team at Raven Audio. While there are certainly a number of hi-fi centers that will offer both their experience as to what sounds best as well as their service centers, I would like to shout out a kudos to the team at Raven Audio, from James Connell to Dave Thomas. The team has not only the passion and belief that they want to help everyone to have an amazing audiophile experience, they also stand 100% behind the quality of their products. I made but dumb a simple mistake of putting one of the pins in the wrong position. I was horrified as the tube glowed beyond what it normally does. James assured me that they could fix it as he felt one of the resistors might have been compromised. He paid for shipping to send to his expert repairman in upper state NY to fix the problem. I was so impressed, I asked him if he could upgrade the capacitors in my Raven Nighthawk to equal the Blackhawk. Although this is not there normal process, he said he would take care of it. Oh...and by the way this entire process from speaking to James to sending it to the service center and getting it back took less than 2 weeks!!! Now that's service. Thank you James and the Raven team !!!
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Above and beyond. Does yours have the original power knob on the left or the new push button?
@millercarbon, I have the knob not the power button. @tomic601, it's always about the music, bit if it it's broken there ain't no music...

PS sorry for typos, my fat fingers are not good at typing on these incredibly small cell phones !
Glad you got fixed up. Dave and James can do good thing and at times be putzes. 
Good to hear customer service is alive and well at Raven....  great service is rare these days.   
So you got one of the last with the original power switch. Nice. This is one of those amps where they got all the little details right, and that is one of em. Another is the orange LED on the volume, just the right hue and brightness to emulate tube glow. Nice.  
That is very good to hear!
so I most ask because I may do that same upgrade in the future. Could you tell any sonic improvements by upgrading the capacitors?
It is difficult to tell at this time because the Raven has only been on playing for about 8-10 hours. One noticeable improvement has been in the sound stage; a little more depth and width. I say this because everyone will have a different set up; mine - Manley chinook phono pre-amp, VPI-3 TT with Koetsu Black cartridge, Audio Mirror Tubador III SE DAC, Fritz Rev 7SE speakers, with mostly Morrow MA4 interconnects and custom 8' 24 Strand DIY Audiophile Speaker Cable from GR Research. I hope this helps. 
Great to hear the repairs were expeditiously served.  Not surprising from Raven.

Just received a large tube order based on Dave's prescriptions from his private collection.  Swapped all weekend long, all rows and power tubes as well.  Wider, deeper soundstage, thumpier bass, incredible clarity and detail.  About as close to audio nirvana as I can imagine on the Blackhawk with CeLest speakers and Sonoquil cables. 

Used mainly Jeff Beck`s Guitar Shop, some Steely Dan, Linda Ronstdt and Dire Straits on vinyl for the rollovers.  
Imaging depth and width is typical of improved caps. The sonic signature doesn't change, you just get more of what was there to begin with. More sophisticated subtle detail, mostly. Their in-house Raven caps are the single biggest difference between Nighthawk and Blackhawk. They use some better resistors, and the whole thing gets a more expensive powder coat, but the caps are a big part of it and they will be a hundred hours reaching full equilibrium, easy.