Spatial Audio Raven Preamp

@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.

To follow up on what Lynn just posted.  I spent my time rebuilding vintage tube gear with modern parts, then I decided to make my own and always tried to make it reasonably affordable and be better than the vintage gear.  The Raven and Blackbirds are a departure.  What is possible if you remove the cost constraint, and instead build gear that will sound the best without regard to parts costs?  The Raven and Blackbirds are built with the best parts for sonics so they are expensive.  They are not built in insanely expensive cases, nor do they have a dealer network to add to costs, so they are not stratospherically expensive.  They are built with very nice panels and in solid cherry or other solid wooden cases.  They are expensive to build, and I understand that prices them out of many people's budget.  So something like the Bottlehead kit mentioned above is very cost effective, and I have no doubt it sounds wonderful.  My previous preamp and amps were very good to my ear and were cost effective.  But they do not occupy the same sonic universe as the Raven and Blackbirds.  Nor should they.  The parts cost for the Raven and Blackbirds exceed the sale price of the other gear.  

Obviously, the lower cost gear sounds very good and will provide the foundation for a very pleasing stereo system.  Diminishing returns is always at play.  But it is fun to make the best sounding gear you can, and then worry about the price.....