Spatial Audio Raven Preamp

Hello All,

I received my Raven  preamp early last week and have about 20 hours listening to the unit. My CD player is an Oppo 205.  I am not into cd's only having 250 - 300 cds.  My favorite media is LP's having about 4150 of all genres.  Unfortunately my phono stage (Modwright PH 9.0 XT) is out for repair.  So I have been listening to nothing but CD's.  And all I can say is wow. I can't wait to get my phono stage back so i can listen to LP's again.  

The soundstage is wide and extremely clear.  The instruments and voices are well separated and very musical, plus the sound stage is really deep.  It is now very easy to listen to, no fatigue. The sound of cd's, for me anyway, is approaching LP quality. My whole system consist of the following:  A VPI HW19 Mk IV with many modifications, tonearm is a Woody String Theory with a Soundsmith Zephyr MIMC cartridge, my DVD/CD Player  is an OPPO 205, my phono stage is a Modwright PH 9.0 XT,  my amps are V4 QuickSilver mono blocks. my speakers are Watt Puppy clones.  

So, I am 72 and believe this is my final system  it ticks all my boxes.  It is not too pricey, it is very detailed and still extremely musical.  Now I can concentrate on collecting LP's specifically jazz and classical.  I think i will get many hours of pleasure from my system in the future. I will post a review on how the LP's sound when I get my phono stage back.

Richard

I now have about 100 hours on my Raven and fell i caan objectively give a review.  First my system; my amps are Quicksilver V4's, my phonostsge is a Modwright PH 9.0 XLT, my preamp is the Raven, my turntable is a VPI HW19 mk4. the tonearm is a Woody Stringe Theory with a Soundsmith MIMC cartridge.  

The addition of the Raven has provided an unbelievable sound stage.  
The highs are great as is the midrange.  Thee bass is much deeper  and clearer than ever before.  These were the major things I was looking for and got with the Raven>  

I also have an Oppo 205 and it also performs with all the positive things I have listed.. To elaborate a little more I was very happy that the soundstage spread out over my listening area.  The real plus is the bass improvement.  II is tight and quick. 

All in all it is very musical and very enjoyable which i can and have listened to for hours at a time.  I will say at this time this is the last preamp I will ever buy.  I hope this helps in your decision making procees.

Richard

Roni, my previous preamp was a Bottlehead Beepre 300.  It is a very airy sounding preamp with good soundstage and good clarity.  I just felt I could do better.  I  wanted a piece of equipment that had excellent reviews and wasn't too expensive, thus the reason for the purchase.  I also wanted this to be my last preamp and I believe tie is.

My Raven only displays a max volume level of 63.  Is that normal?

Thanks 

Richard

Don,

It is loud but not screamingly loud.  I just wanted too make sure I did not have a problem.  My speakers have a measured sensitivity of 91.5.  It is more than loud enough for me.  Thanks for the response.

Richard

Lynn,

Thanks for your attention to my issue.  What I can find on the quicksilver site is the input sensitivity is 1.5 volts, its  impedance is 100k ohms.  Power output is 170 watts into 4 or 8 ohms.  Peak power is 180 watts at 1 Khs.  

I hope that is what you are looking for.

Richard Vince