raven audio spirit monoblocks

Petro85

Petro85

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anyone have an experience with these?? its a texas company. i gotta hear these. i cant get the pics for some reason and cant find them anywhere else. i put an email in to the company and he seems like a nice enough guy who loves his amps.
spirit ref 300b monos
Spirit 300B Reference Monoblocks
Features and Specifications

Output: 28wpc
Frequency response: 20Hz ~ 20KHz
Input terminals: Balanced XLR and single-ended RCA
Speaker terminals: 4 and 8 ohm
Recommended speaker sensitivity: 94dB - 106dB
Dimensions: H 19.4" x W 11.5" x D 10.5" with tubes installed
Weight: 64lbs


Tube Complement per Chassis


2 x 12J5 - First stage amplifier/phase inverter
1 x 12SN7 - Driver tube
1 x 12SN7 - Cathode follower
2 x 12SN7 - Auto biasing
2 x 5AU4/5U4GB/5AR4/GZ34 - Rectifier tubes
2 x 300B - Power tubes
Auto-biased power tubes, interstage transformers

and this badass preamp with phonostage
Silhouette Reference Preamplifier

Features and Specifications

ALPS 20k ohm motorized volume control with +6dB gain
Upgrade available to Tokyo Ko-on attenuator upon request
Input terminals: 1/pr balanced XLR and 3/pr single-ended RCA line level
and 1/pr singled-ended phono
Input impedance phono: 47k ohms
Output impedance line stage: < 200 ohms
Dimensions: W 19.4" x D 11.5" x H 8.5"
Weight: 47lbs


Tube Complement


1 x 5Y3/5AR4/5V4/5V3A/5R4 - Rectifies tube power supply
1 x 6B4G - Regulator
1 x 6SN7 - Voltage adjuster
1 x OA3 - Reference voltage
2 x 12AT7 - First stage amplifier
2 x 12AU7 - Current supply for first stage 12AT7
2 x 6N6P/6DJ8/6922 - Preamp output stage cathode follower
6 x 12AX7 - Phono preamplifier section
 
Hi Steve,

I stumbled into the Raven room this past RMAF before ever hearing about the company. Dave is a really nice guy who really has a passion for his gear. Not only does the Raven Audio gear sound rich, full and detailed it's also beautiful to look at and appears to be very well made.

Dave was spinning vinyl using his reference series amplification and Joseph Audio Perspective's. The JA's sounded just super being driven by the Raven gear. The amps really had a grip and great control on the Perspective's bass drivers and the top end was very liquid smooth but not too sweet or warm. He cranked it up a bit and nothing was lost but instead just became MORE of the same smooth detail with an added visceral punch. I really liked that gear.

Does he have a dealer network and/or a dealer near you?

View attachment 6156
 
wow i didnt know you could get the joseph perspectives in white!! i like those!!
those are his reference big boys playing with the JA's

anyway he is an internet only company and offers an easy listening in your home deal. where you pay shipping and if you keep the amps he gives you your shipping back. but he said he never had anyone send them back. his stereo 300b amp puts out 36wpc and is $7k and change. his monos are 28wpc and are $13k and change. he has others but i only care about the 300b amps lmao!!
the big boys you heard are 250w and $35k . not my style though.
 
mep said:
I reviewed the Raven preamp you mentioned above in PFO and I also reviewed the Silhouette Reference monoblock amps with the KT-150 tubes.

Raven Audio Silhouette Preamp and Amp
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nice write up!!! their gear looks very nice. i like most all of the designs. i think before i buy another 300b amp id need to hear these first. its got big watts for a 300b and would keep me busy rolling tubes for years.lol. especially the preamp
 
Just saw this thread on Raven and thought I'd chime in. I've owned the Raven Audio Spirit 300B reference monoblocks and Silhouette preamp for over a year. I settled on this combination after trying several different amp/preamp combinations with my Volti Vittora speakers. I've thoroughly enjoyed this combination. Dave is a great guy to work with and his products are extremely well made. The 25 to 30 watts provide more headroom than a SET while providing almost all the 'magic' a good SET can deliver. About 9 months ago, I purchased the Sophia Royal Princess 300B tubes, which took the amps' performance to an even higher level. The amps and preamp are the quietest tube electronics I've used with the Volti's, including some SS amps. With the Volti's 104db efficiency, the electronics need to be quiet and these definetly are. For those looking for a quality 300B amp with some muscle, I suggest making the effort to hear the Spirit monoblocks (or Dave's stereo amp, which is very good, as well).
 
Cavl said:
Just saw this thread on Raven and thought I'd chime in. I've owned the Raven Audio Spirit 300B reference monoblocks and Silhouette preamp for over a year. I settled on this combination after trying several different amp/preamp combinations with my Volti Vittora speakers. I've thoroughly enjoyed this combination. Dave is a great guy to work with and his products are extremely well made. The 25 to 30 watts provide more headroom than a SET while providing almost all the 'magic' a good SET can deliver. About 9 months ago, I purchased the Sophia Royal Princess 300B tubes, which took the amps' performance to an even higher level. The amps and preamp are the quietest tube electronics I've used with the Volti's, including some SS amps. With the Volti's 104db efficiency, the electronics need to be quiet and these definetly are. For those looking for a quality 300B amp with some muscle, I suggest making the effort to hear the Spirit monoblocks (or Dave's stereo amp, which is very good, as well).
Click to expand...
thanks calv!!! im very interested in these spirit 300b's it may require a flight to texas in order to hear them, but i am willing. im guessing your using the internal phonostage in the pre?? i read it was not for low output mc's , which means id go with the shadow linestage if i wanted the matching pre. all in all very nice stuff and im very curious to hear it. thx!!!
 
Stereophile just posted a review on a different Raven amp. Probably a good read for somebody interested in buying a Raven product.
 
Petro85 said:
thanks calv!!! im very interested in these spirit 300b's it may require a flight to texas in order to hear them, but i am willing. im guessing your using the internal phonostage in the pre?? i read it was not for low output mc's , which means id go with the shadow linestage if i wanted the matching pre. all in all very nice stuff and im very curious to hear it. thx!!!
Click to expand...

I've really enjoyed the Raven monoblocks, Steve - very nice synergy with the Vittoras. They are SO quiet. Yes, Im using the internal phono stage of the Raven preamp, but given I'm using a low output MC cartridge, I'm using a E.A.R step up transformer (loan). It's not what I want for a long term set-up, but it works and sounds very good. Let me know when you're going to be in the Dallas Fort Worth area as I'd enjoy having you over to hear the system.

Regards,

Van
 
the professor said:
Stereophile just posted a review on a different Raven amp. Probably a good read for somebody interested in buying a Raven product.
Click to expand...

I read Art's review in Stereophile and with the first pair of 300B amps he received, everything that could go wrong did go wrong including the amps going up in smoke. I did think it was a bit unfair that Art took Raven to task for building their chassis from billet aluminum and basically saying they were overbuilt. For those that love non-resonant heavy metalwork so their components aren't vibrating and require all kinds of external dampening that some people resort to, Raven gear provides piece of mind in that regard. Raven's casework is massively built and solid. Once upon a long time ago in another life, I was a precision sheet metal mechanic and I appreciate well-built machined products. I much prefer how Raven designs and machines their metalwork more than I like the look of Dynaco PAS-3 preamp sheet metal which reminds of how some of the boutique amps and preamps that sell for big money look.
 
Art did say he was pleased with the sound of the stereo amp he reviewed. Who knows what it was that caused the resistor problem with the mono's. Could have been some gorilla at the shipping company for all we know.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
the professor said:
I really like the look of the Raven amps. I didn't understand that comment either.
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i do too, i think they would look real nice in my house.lol.

mep said:
I read Art's review in Stereophile and with the first pair of 300B amps he received, everything that could go wrong did go wrong including the amps going up in smoke. I did think it was a bit unfair that Art took Raven to task for building their chassis from billet aluminum and basically saying they were overbuilt. For those that love non-resonant heavy metalwork so their components aren't vibrating and require all kinds of external dampening that some people resort to, Raven gear provides piece of mind in that regard. Raven's casework is massively built and solid. Once upon a long time ago in another life, I was a precision sheet metal mechanic and I appreciate well-built machined products. I much prefer how Raven designs and machines their metalwork more than I like the look of Dynaco PAS-3 preamp sheet metal which reminds of how some of the boutique amps and preamps that sell for big money look.
Click to expand...
is overbuilt possible in the high end industry?? i can think of alot of products that something like that could be said about. and i think amps more than others should be "overbuilt"

dlb2 said:
Art did say he was pleased with the sound of the stereo amp he reviewed. Who knows what it was that caused the resistor problem with the mono's. Could have been some gorilla at the shipping company for all we know.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
i got the same thing once from BAT. a brand new vk-60 delivered to add to my other vk60, and the new one started smoking right out of the box. drove down and brought it back because im not too far from them. got it back a few weeks later and the same fuse from the same tube kept blowing out. after changing the same fuse like 4 times , i packed it up and brought it to my dealer who took it back and lent me his floor model to use until it was sorted out. i ended up giving back his floor model, and cashing out of the other amp into a new preamp. luckily i realized that i did not need two of them anyway. so 3 of the same amps. no problems with the other 2 but the new one was nothing but problems.
go figure. it was said that the original problem was a shipping issue. never found out about the other issue.
 
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