NO listening sessions posible , bookshelf for a Raven Nighthawk


I have never listening to tube gear until I recently heard a prima Luna  pre amp  hooked to a McIntosh  Mc.252 amplifier ,  I like the sound much better than the same set up with  a ss  McIntosh pream.  ( C42) . So now I  would like to buy a  Raven Nighthawk III integrated amplifier  to use  it  at my office , the space is  3.5  x  4.5 mts,  with a  bookshelf full of books on the back wall . The music I like is  mostly classical and  Jazz , I am looking for non fatiguing sound , warm and not to analytic.  Life is full of compromises  and  unfortunately there is no hifi dealers nearby and  I cannot spent a lot of time looking for  “perfect sound,".  Given that  I need a good pair of bookshelf speakers with sensitivity of  at least 88 db  that  matches the amp.  Budget  around $4.000,  with not only SQ but an appearance to mach  and reliability  .  So far I have on my list :  Tannoy mini anniversary .  Triangle  comete 40 th anniversary ,  Omega  super alnico monitor,  Fritz carrera Be ,  Sonus Faber sonetto II  ; Salk Silk AT monitors  and  Exotica monitor  ( humm  too expensive but gorgeous ),  I am open to more suggestions,  would you help me with  your advice   ?  
vinylnostalgic

Showing 2 responses by millercarbon

My room is at least 1m bigger each way than yours. Recently we had some small speakers only 87dB sensitivity and the Raven Blackhawk drove them good and loud. 

So no worries about power. Also would not worry about warm speakers being too much of a good thing. Raven is not "warm" other than compared to sterile analytical solid state. My Blackhawk is real nice and neutral, with both great bass and excellent top end. I would call it liquid maybe but not warm. The Nighthawk is the same amp only without the bespoke in-house Raven caps, and a few other little things. But basically the same amp. What you will probably find then is it sounds great when turned on and then after playing music an hour or two gets to sounding downright magical. 

So my only speaker recommendation would be to steer towards speakers that share this same strength. Emotion and inner detail uber alles.