Greetings! I am not a Raven Head yet as I don't own any of Dave's brilliant offerings but the 1 time I was able to hear Raven driving a Legacy speaker pair made one hell of an impression.
Many system configurations have come and gone since the late 70s,....two small 33/78 turntable, RTR and cassette systems (both with my father who had a local swing band and taught me the love of playing and listening to great music), two 'early tech' CD "college and after..." systems, then took several years off and jumped back into things with home-theater from the days of Laser Disc followed by DVD; 2.1, 5.1, 6.1, 7.1, and then 7.1+2ch hybrid then over to 4.1. The time and funds required to also chase such HT+2ch hybrids at audiophile levels is also not sustainable......at least not for most of us. I sold off the HT portions 2008-2009 and have focused back on 2-ch with a LOT more happiness ever since!
I love this hobby and the pursuit of the best Digital->Analog musical playback experience in 2-ch that is possible. I favor great quality RBCD, SACD, K2HD, DXD mastered XRCD, XRCD2, XRCD24, SHM-CD and SHM-SACD. I still love vinyl but chasing '2 dragons' (SOTA D->A and Vinyl) is cost and space prohibitive...
I love the sound of great tube-based systems however for various reasons I've not been able to plunge back into tubes and miss them so I've focused on great SS amps, preamps and processors over the years at considerable cost with very good results. There is something about 'that tube presentation/sound' that's been nagging me and various events like attending both shows in Munch this past May got the urge firmly going again.
Here to learn more about tube gear in general and get on the road to being an actual Raven Head ? !
System history and current state plus many pictures pending me posting a similar article here can be found here: My System under Zephyr24069 on another forum
Mark (Greenville SC)
SCAudiophile (here and elsewhere)
Zephyr24069 (Agon and Computer Audiophile)
Hey Mark,
Welcome to the forum. Your system is truly amazing! I'd love to hear it. You've certainly spared no expense or cut corners. Like you, one my first experiences hearing Raven amps was also with Legacy speakers in Chicago at AXPONA. I was amazed. I also couldn't stop looking at how beautiful the amps were. Tubes just have a special eye appeal. In any case, I could definitely see a nice set of Silhouette or Shaman Monoblocks in your system. Best of luck on your RavenHead quest!
Operations - Raven Team
