Reed tonearm w/ Raven One table-how's the match ?

i have seen and heard the Raven One at shows, seems like a fine tt that plays above it's price point. i cannot imagine why the Reed 2A (i've owned one of those) or the Reed 2P (i currently own 2) would not work quite well with the Raven One. neither the Raven One nor the Reed have any 'non-linearities' which would cause any balance issues. and both your cartridges are slightly on the warm/dark side of neutral.

being more specific on the Reed 2P's. it's a very lively arm, highly detailed....with very dynamic bass performance. it does not have any mid range bloat some arms can have, i would call it a precise, finely focused arm.......and it does space and note decay.....and blooms nicely.

soft-edged? maybe not.....but that should be more a cartridge issue. lower price range arms with less precise bearings tend to be a bit 'blunt' and dull......you could call them 'soft edged'. maybe the term you want is 'sounds natural and easy on the ears'......the Reed 2P is that!

the Reed 2P is one of the best arms i've ever heard. better, to my ears, than the Graham Phantom, the Triplaner VII, any of the SME's, or even the Schroeder Ref SQ. i've had the Ref SQ and Triplaner in my system directly compared to the 2P.

Opus 88,

yes, selling both Reed 2P arms.

i have (had) 5 arms on 3 turntables; the 2 Reeds, the Rockport linear tracker, and the Durand Talea 1 and Talea 2.

i made a decision to have one turntable and 2 arms.

a month ago i sold the Rockport. i've put the Beat up for sale and the 2 Reeds up for sale, and the Dobbins Garrard 301 will be up for sale shortly, and i'm keeping the 2 Talea arms and monuting them on the Wave Kinetics NVS turntable that is on the way.

i love the Beat tt, and love the 2 Reed arms. the only shortcoming of the Reeds is that they are not quite as good as the Durand Talea's. i was merrily going along with the Reeds and my friend Joel Durand decided to design and build a tonearm and used my room and system from time to time as a test bed. eventually i had to buy a Talea and then a second one.

i still wanted to keep the Reeds but find i just don't use three turntables and 5 arms, so it was time to cull the herd.

in fairness to the Reeds, the Talea is more money; the Reed is still the best arm i've heard other than the Talea. i strongly recommend the Reed tonearms....and will continue to do so after mine are gone.

Rockitman,

one of my Reed 10.5" 2P's had Red Cedar, the other had Cocobolo.

the 1st generation Talea has Jatoba wood in the arm wand, the 2nd generation Talea has Brazilian Rosewood. i have one of each. there is no choice of woods with the Talea.

i'm not sure this thread is the place to get into why i prefer the Talea arms over the Reed, ask me that on my system thread or a new thread and i'll be glad to get into it....with all due respect.