Spatial Audio Raven Preamp

@rav6258   Thank you for your comments, I am saving to buy the Raven this coming spring and this verifies some of the traits I am looking for. 

@rav6258 Thanks for the feedback. Very encouraging. My Raven is being built now so hopefully I can add to the discussion in the near future.

One question, what was your previous preamp as a point of comparison?

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.

@rav6258 I looked at the Bottlehead kit and indeed it is a steal for what the price was.  I expect that it sounded very good.  They cut corners for the price point, but made some very clever choices.  Just looking at the kit photo I would expect the Raven to have more inner detail, and if the rest of your system is up to the task, a lot more inner detail and tonal correctness of instruments.  But you are paying 3-4X what the Bottlehead kit costs, so it better.....

The Bottlehead could be improved by a better volume control setup, the best coupling caps, etc...  You are still listening to caps though rather than the custom wound transformer in the Raven.  But you could still do a Bottlehead for $2200 or so if you built it yourself and I am sure it is a great preamp!

For better or worse, the Raven and Blackbird have high parts costs. Instead of a 1/4" thick sculpted aluminum faceplate (marketing!), we put the money into custom parts that are in the audio path. Pro-quality connectors, high-purity wire, custom transformers, custom Khozmo volume controls, and advanced linear power supplies all add up. Each one is handmade and hand-wired by Spatial Audio Labs.

And the circuit itself, which doesn’t lend itself to a cost-reduced build. Instead of a lot of cheap parts (think opamps), there are a few pretty costly parts. If we had the same boutique styling and marketing expenses as other companies, the price would be double or triple what it is.