Raven Audio

[MylesBAstor]

Hello All,

Currently we sell factory direct to the domestic (US) market via our website. Most of the time when someone is interested in a full system I will personally drive to them. I actually love to drive around the country. Since our "Elite Series" amplifiers are so heavy (40 to 75 pounds each piece) they are not always treated to a gentle ride, which makes a personal delivery an easier consideration depending on the distance and my schedule.

In the future we absolutely plan to have someone handle the overseas duties so they can help potential customers on a more personal level. Since my wife is from Sweden/Germany and grew up over there, she has family in both countries but mostly Sweden.

Thanks for the inquiry!
Sincerely,
Dave Thomson
Raven Audio

Welcome to WBF Dave!

 

[RBFC]

Welcome to WBF, Dave! Thanks for providing interesting products and also for joining to comment. Please add your company and title to your signature by entering the menu on your profile.

Thanks,

Lee

 

[Hyperion]

Hi Dave,

Good to hear from you. I'm looking forward to your future developments. My Swedish wife says HI

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

Nice review Mark! I enjoyed reading it!

 

[mep]

Thanks John.

 

[Odysseus]

Dave is a gentleman of the first order and his products are top notch. If any of you buy his products and choose the personal delivery, you'll be happy to meet him in person.

Ulises.

 

[Ravendave]

Dave is a gentleman of the first order and his products are top notch. If any of you buy his products and choose the personal delivery, you'll be happy to meet him in person.

Ulises.

Well, thank you kind Sir! Such nice words... and from a competitor to boot! Hope things going well in the Carvin world dear friend.

Best Regards,
Dave

 

[Ravendave]

Thanks to everyone for making me welcome here. Any questions or comments about Raven Audio gear are welcome at any time.

We do indeed as I noticed mentioned in the comment above from Skipper, search the internet and across the country for stocks of NOS and NOS/NIB tubes for our preamplifiers and phono preamplifiers. I have yet to come across any current tubes that will match the old ones unfortunately, especially in communicating what vinyl does when it is at it's best. Our linestages and preamplifiers perform so much better using these older tubes, so we are always on the lookout for them.

Unless our customers request it, all of our Elite Series products will always have excellent old stock tubes installed into them, and we carefully go through a long dedicated process of picking each set of tubes out and work to balance the output of the line stage and phono stage before sending them out. I actually enjoy the process.

Recently I have thankfully come across several large stocks of literally tens of thousands of original unused unopened boxes, five-packs and hundred packs of USA and European made 12AX7, 12AU7, 12AT7, and 6922/6DJ8s. The stocks we found also had ruggedized military grade variations of all of these types as well.

Since I am admittedly somewhat of a tube freak, these finds were the treasure trove of my dreams, and not unlike finding some mythical cave full of pirate treasure which in a way they are.

So with some help from our backers we now have invested a very large amount of money on these and are pretty much set for the future on NOS tubes, unless of course we start selling amplifiers at some astounding rate. Nevertheless, for now we should be good and though I am quite a bit the poorer for it, I find solace in looking at some of the most famous WWII and Korean era vacuum tube stocks in history.

Maybe I am a little strange but I for some reason get quite a kick out of just looking at, fondling, swapping and listening to, and even just knowing that we have these old tubes in our possession. And they make our amps, or just about any amplifiers for that matter, sound so much better. Knowing how good these tubes are, even though they are up to and well past 60 years old, also gives us the ability to guarantee them for our customers! I love that.

Truthfully though, forcing myself to actually let go of any of these fine tubes to friends and customers I find to be incredibly difficult at times. In reality I have this unreasonably selfish desire to keep every single one of them forever! Why I feel like that I don't know. It's no doubt a sickness of some sort.

Even if I found a hidden cellar somewhere in Europe full of vintage wines I would enjoy tasting a bottle at a time with ALL my friends at the table! I am sure my liver would eventually tell me when to quit.... but my ears... probably never!

Dave

 

[JackD201]

Here's some comfort for your tube disease Dave…………….. You are not alone.

 

[DSkip]

Hey Dave,

I wanted to apologize for not making it to your room this year. I was very interested to hear your setup again, which was beautiful as always. I couldn't get away from my room during the show hours and never could connect with you afterwards.

 

[dallasjustice]

Dave's system sounded really great at the LSAF this last weekend. Dave is a classy Texan too. I am no fan of tubes but his gear seems very natural in a non-tube sounding way, which is a compliment coming from me.

 

[mep]

Dave's system sounded really great at the LSAF this last weekend. Dave is a classy Texan too. I am no fan of tubes but his gear seems very natural in a non-tube sounding way, which is a compliment coming from me.

Which of Dave's gear did you get to hear?

 

[dallasjustice]

Which of Dave's gear did you get to hear?

Monoblocks and a preamp. Sorry, I don't know all the names. The speakers were legacy. I've heard Legacy several times before and never really liked the sound. This was the first time I heard them sound to my liking. The room wasn't very friendly either but Dave made the best of it by positioning the speakers a little off center so the front and back walls wouldn't ring too much.

 

[mep]

I was just wondering if they were the 300B based monoblocks or the ones that I had in my system.

 

[Ravendave]

Hey Dave,

I wanted to apologize for not making it to your room this year. I was very interested to hear your setup again, which was beautiful as always. I couldn't get away from my room during the show hours and never could connect with you afterwards.

Well Skipper, we did miss you... however I certainly did make it to your room a few times!!!! Beer in hand of course LOL. I think your new amps looked really great. I will never admit my jealousy though~!

:b

For what you paid for that system...... Um, er, I could have painted several Nighthawks! In the end I must say "Good job sir".

Until next year with great hopes that LSAF survives the hopefully only temporary trough it's in (though I admit, that did allow further cruising to see friends!).... Cheers Skip!

 

[DSkip]

Monoblocks and a preamp. Sorry, I don't know all the names. The speakers were legacy. I've heard Legacy several times before and never really liked the sound. This was the first time I heard them sound to my liking. The room wasn't very friendly either but Dave made the best of it by positioning the speakers a little off center so the front and back walls wouldn't ring too much.

Now you've got me even more frustrated that I couldn't get a listen in. I've felt the same about Legacy, so he must have been doing something right in his room.

 

[DSkip]

Well Skipper, we did miss you... however I certainly did make it to your room a few times!!!! Beer in hand of course LOL. I think your new amps looked really great. I will never admit my jealousy though~!

:b

For what you paid for that system...... Um, er, I could have painted several Nighthawks! In the end I must say "Good job sir".

Until next year with great hopes that LSAF survives the hopefully only temporary trough it's in (though I admit, that did allow further cruising to see friends!).... Cheers Skip!

I'll admit that about 4 guys were deeply interested in those monoblocks and quite unhappy when I informed them they were no longer available. I still lust for your gear, but it'll be a while until I get to play at that level. The wife starts law school in a year, so hopefully it will come sooner than later.

LSAF was down this year and I too hope it will survive, but its going to take some work. I do know that if I bring a system and support Doug again next year, it won't be my main rig. I have too much issue with those 6311's overpowering those rooms. I couldn't get it anywhere close to what it was capable of. I'm actually thinking a change in venue might do the thing some good.

 

[Ravendave]

I was just wondering if they were the 300B based monoblocks or the ones that I had in my system.

Hey Mark,

Yes, we came with a pair of Silhouette Reference Monoblocks and Silhouette Reference Preamplifier just like the one you did the Positive Feedback Online review on (Sold to Angelo of Houston, Texas - except with the 50s era Tung Sol 6550s and vinyl-vinyl-vinyl, with a few CDs added in between records played on an upgraded Raysonic four tube CD238!!! The turntable was a Hanss T-20 with a custom Soundsmith Paua high output MI cartridge yielding 2.6mv, mounted on an old 1974 Infinity Black Widow tonearm. We used the Legacy Audio Focus Speakers, that were sold a few years back for about $11,495 and it was one of our best sounding rooms of any audio show so far.

Our second room was the Nighthawk Integrated with M.B. Quart floorstanders, a Mytek DAC, and an old Gateway computer using JRiver. There was also a fully upgraded Raysonic four tube CD128 disc player in that was in the room sometimes, and at other times out in the hall hooked up to our brand new prototype Goldfinch/Hummingbird Headphone Amplifier. We now use the proprietary designed "RavenCaps" which are specially commissioned audio caps designed over the las that are several steps above the V-Caps we used to use in all of our equipment.

I love the Woodstock feel of the Lone Star Audio Festival that allows things like this at such a leisurely pace.

 

[mep]

Dave-I'm glad things are going well for you and the pair of amps I had have found a new home. As much as I admire the real Tung Sol 6550s, I loved what I heard from the KT-150s and hope to return to them in the future.

 

[Ravendave]

Monoblocks and a preamp. Sorry, I don't know all the names. The speakers were legacy. I've heard Legacy several times before and never really liked the sound. This was the first time I heard them sound to my liking. The room wasn't very friendly either but Dave made the best of it by positioning the speakers a little off center so the front and back walls wouldn't ring too much.

Really enjoyed talking with you this year. It was a pleasure to hear someone that appreciates the review/legal situation as well as you do. I know you're not a tube guy but I wish to take this opportunity to get to know you and some others even better.....

I hope you can make it for a few hours.

Next time I am in Dallas/Ft. Worth is going to be on Saturday, the 17th of May (11 days from now) the day before I take SE to the airport to go back to Seoul. He leaves on the morning of the 18th but all day Saturday we are going to be getting together for good food and have a good long listening session of the Spirit 300B Reference Monoblocks and Silhouette Reference Preamplifier that Stereophile had in January, and came out with a review on this month. We all know how that went, so I would love another chance to have my buddies in the Northeast Texas area to really hear what they CAN do.

This system is owned by my good friend Van Waldrop of Colleyville and features also a pair of 104.5dB Volti Audio Vittora horn speakers, which is exactly how they should be listened to. He also has a great vinyl rig.

I sure would love it if all of my Dallas friends and audiophile acquaintances would/could come by and join us for a few hours, say 5pm until 9pm or any time during that time slot. I would also like to give SE the send off that he deserves for designing these great amps before he goes back home for a few weeks. He has really never had a chance to meet my audio friends like he should, and it is important to us that people hear how good the 300B amps sound on the right speakers and in a good room. Everyone is invited so PLEASE contact me as soon as possible for a spot. The room is a large one, enough to accommodate 12-18 people.

Once again, that is Saturday, May 17th, 5 until 9pm, in Colleyville, Texas

Thanks All!
Dave Thomson
Raven Audio
dave@ravenaudio.com