Ok you guys. Would you mind to spend a moment to describe who and what Raven is? To not be too crass, I haven't heard of this brand, nor know who they are.
Raven is a small Texas company specializing in high end tube amps. If you do a search, which is what I did, you will learn they are small and very highly regarded.
Having done this a very long time now I was like you in the beginning very skeptical of tiny little no-name companies having anything worthwhile to offer me. If its so good, I thought, how come I never heard about it before? Over the years I came to realize there are two ways to succeed in this business. One is you plow enough money into advertising (including comping reviewers) to become known. Another is to plow everything into the product, relying on your customers to let others know.
Some of them like Keith Herron at Herron Audio don't even want reviewers or ads. As Keith explained to me a bad review can kill him, obviously. But a good review can create way more business than he can handle, leading to delays and bad customer service, which can kill him just as well. I looked around, saw nothing but glowing reviews, a non-existent used market in which what few came up sold instantly and for high amounts, and been extremely pleased to own what is certainly one of the finest phono stages made, yet at a very reasonable price.
Look around you will find similar with Raven. When I see someone like willgolf, who has better things to do, taking time out to post nothing but compliments, and this is a guy who has been all over the world listening to everything from cost no object down, that means more to me than any ad or review.
I was looking into Cary amplification, but decided to go with PrimaLuna as a great into to my first tube rig.
I would take PL over Cary any day. Even though PL is made in China. Which is a problem. And getting worse every day.
Also, I understand that due to speaker efficiency I don't need to move up to the Evo 400, my rift is with sonic improvements and details division between the 200 separates, (or 300 integrated) and the 400 integrated so if anyone has experience or can help to elaborate on the why and what I get with bigger capacitors I would be greatly appreciative.
Right. Watts don't matter. Capacitance don't matter either. What matters is everything, the way it all works together. Tube selection is merely the most obvious. Actually if you had to point to one single thing in a tube amp it would probably be the transformers. Technical factors and details in the way they are wound has massive impact on performance. Its just hard to see because they all look the same. They pretty much measure the same. But they are not the same.
Even the technical factors that do have meaning, like bandwidth, are hard to understand. What is easy to understand is when you hear it. Its one thing to read on a page someone says all watts are not created equal, or that a 20 watt tube amp is plenty of power. Its quite another thing to experience as only then does it sink in that yes indeed this thing sounds and feels like it has more power than some amps that measure 10X the watts.
With caps you need to be clear what you mean by "bigger". Bigger value or bigger physical size. Caps store power allowing for immediate delivery of large transients and so more capacitance is desirable. But that is only part of the story. The speed and smoothness with which that cap charges and discharges turns out to be much more important. This is why all the best components- not only amps but speakers, phono stages, CDP, everything- uses expensive higher quality caps.
What all these things do- caps, tubes, transformers, wire, diodes, all of it- when they're well chosen high quality is they reduce grain and glare down to such minuscule levels the sound takes on an effortless natural quality, with dynamics that are both powerful and finely detailed. This really is what you're paying for, an effortless presentation that floats free of the system and room. This is nothing that can be measured. It can only be heard. Which is why listener impressions are by far the most important factor to consider in your search.
