Raven Audio Nighthawk


I ordered mine today, but didn’t think to ask here first of anyone has had experience with one. I haven’t read anything negative about any of their products anywhere. 
valjean246o1

Showing 4 responses by avanti1960

i had a nighthawk and blackhawk for a while. they were both excellent sounding and quite similar. at that time they were shipping with nos svet winged c and nos rca, amperex tubes. tubes greatly affect the sound quality.
hard to beat with both low efficiency speakers in a smaller room or he speakers in a med large room.
transparent, colorful sound.
eventually i wanted more scale and moved on to kt 120 based tube amps and then solid state power amp with tube preamp driving large brit mons.
the first time i heard the nighthawk it was driving a set of kef ls 50s.
possibly the sweetest sound i have ever heard regardless of system cost.
enjoy !
i owned a nighthawk and blackhawk.  listened long and seriously to the osprey when a local dealer carried them.  
the osprey sounded better for sure, sweeter and more holographic. 
i loved the sound.  
since the amps had the same basic layout, specs and tube specifications, the differences in sound came from upgraded internal parts, caps, rectifier, etc. similar to upgrade packages some amplifier makers offer.  the tube brands (NOS) were also upgraded and included some expensive amperex and mullards at that time.  
consider this when you decide if it is worth the additional cost to you.  

@jetter 
yes, i moved on from the raven amps to drive larger, less efficient speakers at more scale than it was comfortable with.  
the ravens are actually more capable than people give them credit for.  they can fill a medium room quite well driving the low efficiency kef ls 50s for example.  
for larger rooms higher efficiency speakers are you friend as raven dave recommends.  
raven amps and ls50s is one of the best sounding combinations i have ever heard regardless of price.  just awesome.