REVIEW: Raven Audio Blackhawk Integrated, Soniquil Cables....

I spun up Miles Davis Bitches Brew sat back and was lifted into the music. The soundstage was vast and detailed, I felt as if I was at the Green Mill on Broadway in Chicago listening to Miles in 1970. 

Poor service from Raven Audio.

I was researching audio equipment and contacted Raven Audio. I spoke to James Connell. I told him the products in which I was interested and asked him if Raven offered a Military Discount. He stated that he would offer a 5% discount. At the time I was stationed overseas and could not have the items shipped to my location but assured him of my interest and that I would purchase the units when I returned stateside. Upon my return to the U.S. I contacted James and stated that I remained interested in the Celest towers, but that they were now out of my price range after their recent price increase. Jim stated that he had some Celest bookshelves which were coming available and that he had a first-run pair which he could sell to me for $1,999. We even video chatted so that I could see the speakers for myself. Jim stated that the speakers would not be ready for at least another two weeks, as he had to have them photographed for their website. He asked that I follow-up with him in about two weeks. At the end of our conversation, I confirmed the prices and details of the package verbally. After our conversation, I sent James a follow-up e-mail with a detailed itemization. Jim acknowledged my e-mail twice, and never attempted to correct the information.  This is an exact cut and paste of the itemized breakdown I emailed James.

- Blackhawk integrated with a $300 discount

- New Celest bookshelves at $1,999

- Upgraded tubes in Blackhawk (you had mentioned the JANs in front, Brimars in middle, and I think GE in the back)

- Power cable

- Speaker cable

- RCA cable

Again, James acknowledged this e-mail twice and made no attempt to correct any of the information.

Per his instructions, I contacted James two weeks later by e-mail to ask if the speakers were ready to ship. James responded that they would be ready to ship in two more weeks and asked that I call him directly to “catch up briefly.” I called and texted James numerous times over the next week with no answer or response. He finally answered my phone call a week later. I was excited when he answered and expected a pleasant conversation that consisted of him taking my credit card information and telling me how much I was going to enjoy the set-up. Instead, James opened with, “I am not going to lose money on speakers.” He went on that he had a bad feeling about this deal as I had haggled him on price. I responded that I had not haggled on price, I had asked about a Military discount and expected him to honor the price he had provided me. He stated that he would not, and that since I did not have it in writing the contract was nonbinding. I respectfully corrected James that in Texas, the state in which he operates, a verbal contract is legally binding. This infuriated him, and he proceeded to try and lecture me on being grateful for the “favor” he was doing me by offering a Military discount. I quickly rebutted that he was doing me no “favor” but was instead extending a courtesy to me and every other servicemember with a discounted price. He would hear none of it and continued with his ramblings about how I should be more grateful to him for having a Military discount. The fact that this company thinks that I or any customer, military or not, should feel a debt of gratitude to them is preposterous and, quite frankly, offensive.

I have chosen to live my life by a certain set of ethos, among them honor and integrity. I do my upmost to support businesses which uphold these values. Raven Audio falls completely short of that bar. Instead, they employ unscrupulous business practices by misquoting prices and then lack the integrity to honor them. Worse, they then try to blame the customer for their own ethical shortcomings. In the end, I chose to take my business elsewhere and suggest you do the same.

Hey everyone, this is James Connell with Raven Audio. Firstly, I want everyone to know that Raven Audio is extremely pro-Military. Both of Dave Thompson’s (Raven Audio Founder) parents were military. My father was Airforce, my uncle was as well, and many of my extended family members are and were in the Military. Two of my closest lifelong friends were Arm and Navy. As many know I have been involved in music production my whole life, but I have also owned a television production firm as well. About ten years ago I hosted a dinner in Dallas honoring WWII veterans and prior to that filmed them telling their stories. This was one of the most meaningful things I feel like I have ever done. If anyone is interested, message me and I will send you links to these wonderful men’s stories I produced. I am delving into this information because I want everyone out there to know how much I personally love and respect the military and people who have served.

As a company, Raven Audio gets many solicitations every day via email and phone for all sorts of scams. Occasionally, the stories are by claimed Military members. I am in a constant state of hyperawareness of these issues because we are bombarded every day and week with various scams. Having said that, I do believe that Erik was most likely representing himself as serving in the Military even though through all the communications he offered no proof of it. This communication was over a several-month period. I never at any point told him we would not honor the discount on the amplifier. The problem was over a new speaker that we are coming out with that I wanted to be a surprise to the public. We have had several versions of the prototype. When we first spoke, I mentioned I could sell him the prototype for s specific price. A couple of months passed before Erik called me. During that time we rethought the speaker. The first version was a small bookshelf. We wound up with a larger bookshelf that we believe is more marketable because it has enough authoritative low bass to not need a subwoofer. When Erik called me a week ago and said he was ready to go, and mentioned the prices I could not sell him the newer version for the price quoted two months before. That is how this got started, It was not until after the call that I put it all together in my own mind. I deal with twenty to fifty customer phone calls per week and we discuss many things. Many people talk about buying and then do not call me for several months and I have to be reminded of what we talked about. Sometimes things change during those spans of time and we are not able to do what we could have done when I made the original offer. When Erik sent me an email listing out what we had talked about, I was simply acknowledging that what I had told him initially was true. When he called me last week, the conversation went sideways when he told me he was a lawyer and gave me a lecture on a verbal contract and then threatened to smear us on social media. Within a day I was getting emails from fake email accounts accusing me of being a “Liberal Activist” and dishonoring military veterans. I then started getting emails showing long diatribes being posted on all our videos on YouTube, of course, I deleted them because I feel like this is a ridiculous and dishonorable way to handle this situation. If Erik would have simply taken my phone calls the evening that this happened, I was prepared to sell him the speakers at our loss after thinking it through because once I put myself in his position, I could understand why he was frustrated. I still will sell him the amp with the discount and the original smaller bookshelf speakers that we discussed and I showed him via FaceTime a couple of months ago. I am open to suggestions.

Erik, If you want to have a reset, call me and we can put this behind ourselves and work something out to make you happy.

All the best,
James

Sitting here enjoying my Raven Nighthawk upgrade. These discussions can wear any member out. The fact that James chirped in and offered any solution shows how difficult these communications can be. My experience with Raven Audio has been crazy excellent in several ways. I've been on the phone with both Dave, James, Bill (tech), and Bryant. These guys have invested not only time into my system with advice, trial tubes, endless tips but I have been treated like a close friend. The bottom line is: my system is my personal dream system thanks to Raven Audio. This Integrated amp sounds better/real more than anything I've ever owned or heard. Started as a junior stereo salesman in 1977. Yes, I'm pretty old. My Raven experience has been an unqualified pleasure.  

Well from these posts here James Connell from Raven Audio seems to have comported himself very well.