Spatial Audio Raven Preamp


Spatial is supposed to be shipping the first "wave" from pre orders of this preamplifier in May, does anyone have one on order? Was hoping to hear about it from AXPONA but I guess they were not there. It's on my list for future possibilities. It seems to check all my boxes if I need a preamp.

fthompson251

Showing 3 responses by slinco

I've had a Raven for about six months now and am loving it. I've only ever had cheap headphones but I'm about to buy some good ones, so I'd love to know more about the headphone amp capabilities of the Raven. All I've read so far is that the Raven needs 'phones that are 200 ohm or greater. I've settled on the ZMF Atrium Closed as the cans I'll probably buy; they are dynamic driver, 300Ohms and 96dB/mW. Does the Raven have enough power to drive these to a satisfying loudness? I'd love to hear from @lynn_olson  or @donsachs  about the headphone circuit in the Raven. Is it just a chip amp inside, or does it utilize the tubes, etc.  How good is it compared to a dedicated headphone amp. I'm hoping it's quite good so I won't have to complicate my system with a dedicated headphone amp.

Would also love to hear from other Raven owners as to what headphones they've used with the Raven.

Lynn, thanks for the info. I see that the Raven specs don't give an output impedance spec for the headphone output. Is it different than the pre-amp's output impedance of 293 ohms?

Thanks for all the info, Lynn. I'm looking forward to trying mine with good headphones. It's an amazing pre-amp with speakers, I can tell you that.