TESTED: TW Acustic Raven One turntable

The ultimate in no-fuss high-performance analog performance

While the Redpoint Model D is ultimately even more explosively dynamic, possibly more detailed, and its bottom end has greater “slam,” the Raven One delivers equally as much musical pleasure. Given that it’s a fraction of the price and hails from Europe, no less, I’d call the Raven One the best value I know of in high-end analog playback.

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 NOW EVEN BETTER

Shortly before this deadline, Jeff Catalano asked if I’d like to try a trio of updates that are now standard with Raven One: new Stillpoints-designed feet, a new power supply/controller, and a new arm “board” (the $6500 price—up from $6000—reflects these changes). I tackled them separately to hear how each affected the sound, beginning with the feet.

I swapped them out while in the process of reviewing Music Matters’ release of Art Blakey’s A Night in Tunisia, figuring I’d hear some difference. And so I did. What I wasn’t prepared for was how dramatic the difference would be. What had sounded pretty wonderful before now exhibited significantly more air around the instruments, studio ambience, dynamic pop, tonal complexity, and simply more musicality with less noise. Very cool.

The latest power supply and speed control box is smaller and slightly simpler to operate than the original. And offering further evidence of designer Woschnick’s perfectionism, this box was originally an upgrade to the AC-3. As Catalano explained it, once Woschnick heard the improvement and insisted that the same technology also grace the Raven One. Although the difference may not be quite as dramatic as the feet are, the new power supply reduces noise to even lower levels, while improving dynamic nuance and headroom.

Finally, the new arm mount, rather than being machined from a solid-brass billet, is a combination of solid brass and stainless steel (a “doughnut” that decouples the arm from the brass platform). And while I may sound like the proverbial needle stuck in a groove, this new decoupled arm mount also brought easily heard audible improvements along the same lines described above. (Now anodized black, it also looks better than the old naked brass.)

In short, each of these seemingly small (but not) changes makes listening to LPs more involving and satisfying, and brings us that much closer to the music.
--Wayne Garcia

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SPECS & PRICING

TW Acustic Raven One turntable

Type: Belt-drive, unsuspended turntable
Speeds: 33.3 and 45 rpm
Dimensions: 17" x 5.25" x 13"
Weight: 52 lbs.
Price: $6500

High Water Sound

274 Water Street, 2F
New York, NY10038
(212) 608-8841
highwatersound [at] earthlink [dot] net

Associated Equipment

Tri-Planar Ultimate VII tonearm; Transfiguration Orpheus and Axia cartridges; Artemis Labs LA-1 linestage and PL-1 phonostage; Naim Superline phonostage; Kharma MP150 monoblock amplifiers; Kharma Mini Exquisite loudspeakers; Tara Labs Zero interconnect and digital cables, Omega speaker cables, The One power cords, and AD-10B Power Screen; Audience Adept Response Power Conditioner; Finite Elemente Spider equipment racks; Clearaudio Speed Strobe test LP; Feickert Universal protractor; AcousTech stylus force gauge