Motor Controller ugrade for Raven One Turntable

Manitunc, refer to the other thread titled

"Motor Controller effect on analog sound"

some interesting info. there.

Tdaudio, not a problem for me, I did learn some things from the info. provided in the other thread by members.

If any of you have met, know, or had stereo business dealings with Jeff at Highwater Sound then you are already aware that Jeff does not give any 'sales' pitches nor does he ever feed you bull$$!!. He is as honest as they come in the business and far more knowledgeable than most! He's genuine and the real deal; a true music lover, very experienced, patient, and generally concerned about making you happy and giving solid music and stereo advice. And, he sells top notch gear including the TW tables which are without a doubt some of the very finest tables you can buy. German craftsmanship at it's best!

Yes, I have heard this motor change demoed at Highwater sound in NY and yes it makes a noticeable hearable difference. BTW, VPI makes decent products too but none of their motors can hold a candle to any of the TW motors (and I actually own a VPI Aries 3 now myself).

Try the motor change; if you aren't happy with it I am betting that Jeff will take it back...

I agree, Jeff is a great guy to deal with. I met him a few years ago at RMAF. He has never pushed me to buy anything. I have owned several VPI tables, the last being a Aries 2. It was a very nice table, but not as good as the Raven One (in my opinion). The Raven has a blacker background due to the very quiet motor. I plan on trying the AC motor controller in the near future based on Jeff's suggestion. By asking this question, I am in no way questioning Jeff's knowledge or opinion of the AC motor controller/Raven One table. My only reason for asking this question was to seen if others had tried this and what differences they heard. Others may not care for the Raven tables (eveyone has a right to their opinion), but I have been in this hobby for 30+ years and I have learned to trust my own ears and take everything I hear from others with a grain of salt.

Dear Blackburn, A Maybach? A Rolls? A Ferrari 599GTB or Italia? What, for $300K? I am a car guy without your kind of bucks, but I was once a very successful Porsche collector (550 Spyder, Carrera GT Speedster, etc). If I had not sold them all, I probably could now afford an MBL amplifier, but I probably would not buy one.

I visited the Raven showroom last October at RMAF. Thomas seems like a very nice man, and the products appear to be beautifully made. I cannot but wonder therefore at the hostility typically provoked by discussion of one or another of their products on this website. As someone else commented, there seems to be a group of Raven-haters that is at least as enthusiastic and devoted as are the Raven-lovers. I have no idea why this is, but the turntables cannot possibly be as flawed as the detractors claim, just based on the quality of construction and the fact that there is nothing particularly adventurous about the design, meaning Ravens stick to the consensus approach to building a belt-drive, which has evolved over the last two or three decades. (How different sounding can a Raven AC be from a Brinkmann belt-drive, for one example?) I will never be a fan of 3 motors, however.

I can't imagine why someone would hate a particular manufacturer of turntables. The Raven seems reasonably well built, with accepted design choices. I'm not sure that you could ever perfectly calibrate 3 motors to run at exactly the same speed with exactly the same torque, but I believe that heavy platters and inertia more than cover up any speed issues when used with a belt drive. So while I have perhaps criticized the motor controller theory in this thread, it was not meant to be a criticism of Raven or any other manufacturer. I just dont get how a motor controller can have such a great effect on sound with a heavy plattered turntable using a reasonable quality motor.