TW-Acustic Raven

Taste is always different, but I did listen to a lot of turntables with worse Performance than the Feickert.
This one was a killer combination

The Feickert Turntable

Buying a Phantom Arm is always a good decision, no matter for which turntable. It can deliver the best from most cartridges.
Platine Verdier is a special chapter, it is expensive and rare. I know some owners and all of them don't do much conversation about analog. They use their time for listening.
But of course, it is not a religion :)

Contact Graham Tricker of GT Audio he is UK Distbrutor for both tables and will be able to give you his views on both the Raven One and Verdier Platine

Has anyone compared TW Acustic with a Verdier Platine? I think one could get a used Platine for the price of a TW Raven One.

Dr. Fieckerts view of marketing a product is at best a carny side show in my minds eye.
If his table is anything like his protractor...

Upon becoming aware of the MintLp arc protractor for $90.00 shipping included and directly comparing the end results of the Fiekert to the Mint protractor last year.
My ears told me immediately there was a significant issue with the Fiekert.

That along with the other issues I mentioned made my blood boil.

Pcosta I agree, the Wally tools are one of the best on the Planet.
It is a shame they are so difficult to get.

The Mint and the Wally set up tools ARE of the highest precision, the end results are up to the user.

Having owned and used the Fieckert protractor and finding it to be a big PITA, it is gone. It is a guessing game trying to find the center to the arm bearing to get the protactor lined up, and forget about using that thing with a SME arm. The only reason it sells it becasue it is a universal solution and easily available.
The Wally Tools are way better but impossible to get.

I saw and heard the Fieckert Twin with a Kuzma 4-point with a Lyra Scala and was disapointed to say the least. Way to many variables in a show setting but not impressive at all if you ask me. Acrylic and painted birch ply wood for materials does not make for fabulous design princapals in my mind. Good marketing can sell tables but does not mean it is a great product.

I looked at both table lines and my next table is going to be the Fickert, do the research and you will find that out.

I am not saying the Raven isn't a great table, however, the Fickert is also a remarkable table and the price differential is quite large. I can get a Fickert with a superb arm and cartidge for the price of a fully blown Raven!

Audiofreak,

Have you heard the Feickert Twin ?

I think the OP is considering a Raven One/Two which is about US$5000-6500.

Feickert Twin is US$9000 without arm last i heard. Quite a few were seen at the Munich hifi show i think, likley a sign of a good thing.

When i was considering my new turntable last year , my local dealer/Australian importer had the new Feickert Twin for US$4750 but he soon dropped the Feickert line. It sounds like a good bargain and opportunity missed by myself with hindsight but i had to look elsewhere.

Back to the present, i'm now a very happy owner of Raven One. Got it going with a Jelco 10.5 S arm tone paired with an Ortofon Kontrapunkt B for the last 2 months while i wait for the Phantom II order to be completed. Relative to my previous purchases,this is a significant purchase but there is no regret so far. Sound wise, there is better bass definition + heft (biggest improvement) , more microdetails , airy top end and deeper soundstage when it's compared to my old setup which costed about 1/3 the price ( Roksan Radius 5/Nima tonearm/Ortofon Kontrapunkt A ~ $3K). I was looking for significant improvement obviously and subjectively i think it gives about 20-30% improvement. Happy with that.

And I should finally get my new Phantom II tonearm in the next 2 weeks and hopefully this will take things further.

I still think Raven One is one of the better value new turntable going around.

Audiofreakgeek

After spending $250.00 on a Feikert protractor and assuming I was getting a precision set up tool, I quickly found out it is NOT....

The Feikert protractor is WAY over priced and is NOT a precision instrument for setting up a cartridge.

Further more ,the small two page pamphlet that accompanied the protractor is a joke....

A glossy advertisement for his turntable printed on heavy weight paper and three times the size of the instruction PAMPHLET is included for the $250.00 spent.

As for the "storys" on the street you have heard regarding deveoplment and material of the Raven line of tables.

You should of dug a little deeper into Thomas Woschuicks published back ground and bio history.....

Unfortunately I don't have a Graham Phantom arm but only a good Michell Tecnoarm on my TW Acustic Raven One .. it's surely not the better looking TT .. but trust me it's a great turntable far superior to most "boutique look" TT around.

Oh, its spelled "Feickert"...they have a website and a review on 6moons...

I would like to hear more about this Fickert table, as I have not heard of it. Does this manufacturer have a website? The TW-Acustic Raven Two is at the top of my focus list. I like the idea of a table that can take two arms, but does not take up a great deal of space. However, as I contemplate this significant investment, I am torn with a bias toward more "stable" U.S. companies, such as VPI and Basis, which have maintained a presence in this market for so many years. I wonder what would happen if, say eight years down the road, a problem arises with the TW-Acustic...how would I get the thing fixed...on the other hand, given superb engineering, maybe the reason to buy TW-Acustic is that it will not break, even eight years down the road...well, I don't see these pop up on audiogon very often...

i am a owner a raven one with the ortofon 12 inch and i have never owned a TT anywhere near this price point, but in the last 6 years since i have got back into vinyl i have owned a music hall 5- music hall 7- both sounded dead to me and then i bought a thorns 135 that is basically the same as 124 but with out the clutch and strobe and it has finicky speed issues so then- i got off Craig s list a thorns 115 which was highly regarded in 1980 and its sounds clear and good as long as you don't walk across the room because because it weighs about a pound and its squirrely and so then last tt i bought off the bay was a Leno 75 that the seller said was rebuilt blah blah and i read all this stuff online about how great lencos are so i bid top and won this pretty machine where the music goes from flat to sharp back to flat back to sharp back to flat in other word the speed is screwy.
as you can tell i got no biddness owning vintage but i have an ear and i have to tell you that my raven one floats my boat big time it so SECURE and SURE AND STEADY like the atomic clock.

i run a Decca jubilee that could be a disaster on an insecure machine.
its amazing.
i have never gotten to this place with music before.
last night i put on a record i first bought in 1974- Neil young ON THE BEACH and it transported me- BUT not back into time- but into the room where the music was played.
IT WAS SO ACTUAL.
you gotta think that this process of dragging a pin through a plastic grove then up some wires to get music out is a delicate of a process as walking across town with a cigarette ash.you would need a steady hand.

There is a new contender to the Raven ranks.

The word on the street is the Fickert table which shares the same platter construction is actually an even better turntable than the Raven!

In Europe the Fickert is gaining quite a reputation for its sound quality and TW Acoustic is quite concerned about how well Fickert is doing with his new Twin.

There is a lot of "story" about the Raven and its magnificent platter material, it turns out that this platter material was found by the Raven's designer he did not make it up, it was an alloy from a commercial manufacturer.

Dr. Fickert has studied all aspects of the turntable, arm and cartridge interactions and his acclaimed cartridge set up tools bare the fact that he is one of the most astute and knowledgeable designers of analog out there.

The precision motor drive on the Fickert is equally remarkable and the twin compares with the three motor Raven yet is far less expensive.

I looked at both table lines and my next table is going to be the Fickert, do the research and you will find that out.

I am not saying the Raven isn't a great table, however, the Fickert is also a remarkable table and the price differential is quite large. I can get a Fickert with a superb arm and cartidge for the price of a fully blown Raven!

I have heard the Raven One a couple of times with Dynavector arms, and at the latest RMAF with a Ortofon 309D with a Koetsu Jade, and was blown away by how good that combo was. I am sure the Phantom would be even better, but it goes to show you how good that little table is, with a less expensive arm like the Ortofon AS series arms.

TW makes great stuff and I have been a happy owner of a Raven AC for over two years now.

IMO it is the best bang for buck out there for new tables.

Scroll down a bit here in the analogue discussion section, see TW Acustic Raven One owners, also more in the archives...