We understand, you love music and you've just experienced a tubed audio system… and you’re in love. The richness, the closeness, the musicality of tube components is totally captivating. But how do you buy into the tubular lifestyle without breaking the bank? To begin you'll need speakers somewhere between 86 and 96dB efficient plus your favorite source components and… you might even already be an owner of a Raven Audio Nighthawk or the even newer Nighthawk MK2!
Over the last few years many of our Nighthawk owners have asked us - what if we asked you to take our wonderful Nighthawk and try to get a little bit more high end sound out of what is already such a great platform. So guess what... this is exactly what we decided to do. So for 2015 a new baby was born to the Raven Audio family - The Blackhawk Limited Edition.
The 20wpc Blackhawk Limited Edition Integrated Amplifier is still considered one of Raven Audio's entry-level amplifiers. But your taste of tubes on a budget - with many of our Elite Series upgrades added, like Tokyo Ko-on, PRP, and Takman resistors, the add the fabulous proprietary RavenCap audio capacitor into the mix and you have a luxurious form of the Nighthawk MK2, and believe us, it handles digital and analog with a bit more delineation, a bit more ooomph!, a smoother more detailed and accurate sound stage, and more punch in the bass regions - it is just fabulous. If you don't believe us, go to the internet forums and read what our customers have said almost immediately.
The Raven Audio Blackhawk Limited Edition Integrated Amplifier is a hit.
What will we do next to make this one better? Well it just so happens that we have plans for that one too! The next step in the Avian Series? Well it will be called the Osprey... which is like a Blackhawk LE on steriods. The same sound, only with 50% more power.... wow!
The Blackhawk chassis is again manufactured of the same sturdy 14-gauge carbon steel with an aircraft-grade aluminum faceplate plus the same handsome small-signal tube plate on top. Even at this price Raven Audio doesn't skimp on quality; the handles are the same "made of schedule-20 carbon steel" that the Nighthawk MK2 features, and with the same high end knobs machined from aircraft-grade aluminum.
The folded carbon steel plate gets a high-quality primer again and several coats of an even higher-grade automotive enamel, from the Mercedes line that's baked and clear-coated several times with aircraft-grade sealant. The result is a little bit deeper, a little more lustrous finish that looks even more elegant and sounds totally awesome! For more info, visit our main website at RavenAudio.com today.
OMG the sound quality is so impressive! These high end tube amps blow my mind with how clear and responsive the sound is and without an equalizer even!
ReplyDeleteNice circuit! It will go well with my K1. So is the matching input transformer just wound on a round toroid, if building it from scratch? Also would a blocking cap on the input (to keep DC out of the transceiver) be a bad idea?
ReplyDeletebest tube amplifier