Spatial Audio Raven Preamp

The Don Sachs and Lynn Varley Revelation (Raven) preamp and Blackbird 300B amps seem extremely interesting. I've followed their 300B thread here on Audiogon (where Ralph from Atmosphere has added a ton), and it is a master class in tube amp and preamp design and theory. I've learned a ton; it's a long detailed read.....and above my level of knowledge, but I've learned a lot.

I'd love to read your experiences

It is very good to see the Raven Pre Amp has began to get a following and committed purchases. 

I await in eager anticipation the user reports from adding this design into their home systems

I expect my Raven will be delivered in about 5 or 6 weeks. I already have Don's dual mono 300b amps and the newest rendition of his Model 2 preamp, so I will get to compare them side by side.

That should be a synergistic combination so I’m anxious to hear your thoughts as well as the comparison between preamps.  Thanks!

I hope you folks like the Raven (which are built and sold by Spatial Audio Labs). It’s a miniature version of the power amp, with one stage of gain instead of three. It has both RCA and XLR inputs, with the balanced input going straight to the 6SN7 grids, and the RCA going through a studio-quality input transformer (which converts the signal to balanced). The volume control is a special-order Khozmo dual mono unit, with volume and L/R balance on the remote control. The output is also transformer coupled, with both RCA and XLR balanced outputs.

Don Sach’s previous preamp had a special SRPP circuit, which used clever noise-cancellation techniques to reject power supply noise. The Raven similarly uses inherent circuit balance to also reject power supply noise ... although there isn’t much, since the power supply regulator itself has 130 dB of noise rejection.

Probably the biggest sonic difference is the previous Don Sachs preamp used a cathode follower and a very high quality coupling cap in the final stage, while the Raven uses transformer coupling to accomplish the same thing.