Spatial Audio Raven Preamp User Experience


Looking for any user info on this preamp. There’s quite a few posts here on how great the company is, what nice guys the designers are, and great input from the designers themselves. All well and good. However, I haven’t come across too much objective feedback on characteristics and long-term experience with this unit. Particular interested in tonal balance, dynamics (the slam I need for rock music), soundstaging, etc. I’ve been in touch with Spatial for the first time on Raven availability and they are going into a new production cycle. The preamp looks great but I’d still like to hear from long-term users. Any input appreciated. Thanks.

jaybe

Showing 2 responses by jaybe

Thank you Lynn. In the absence of other feedback (I’m surprised), very helpful. I’m not great at using some of the audiophile terminology, so saying "is it good for rock" is my shortcut. I think you’ve answered that. I have no experience with the larger plate tubes, it’s mostly based on the miniature type, which have fallen short of my expectations. I also had an ARC pre with the 6H30 tubes but it was a little too clean and lacking in any tube character.

I was surprised that my newest, highly regarded $5k miniature tube-style preamp has a fairly narrow soundstage. Can you speak to the Raven’s soundstage?

Many of the better (pricier?) preamps seem to use the 6SN7. I’ve been looking at a few of these, but most of the more highly regarded ones seem to have long lead times of 6-9 months. It's 6 weeks for the Raven.

Thanks again for your reply.