TW Raven One owners- will this be it ?

I have not tried one but I have tried some of the competing tables mentioned in this thread about AC Raven tables, and of the ones I have owned mentioned there (a couple of the DD tables, and a couple of big Micros), all have been wonderful.

Off subject, but if you're going to be 55 soon, you should probably change your handle....!

I bought a Raven One tt last February and am mightily impressed! I twinned it with a new Graham Phantom II and Transfiguration Orpheus L mc cartridge at the same time and am very happy with no desire to 'upgrade the tt'. I am 53 and the Raven One replaced an Oxford Acoustics Crystal Reference tt/SMEV/Koetsu RS I had owned for 21 years (cartridge obviously changed during that time span!). My goal was to purchase a simple, non-suspended chassis tt with compact footprint, not exceeding 30kg in weight (top acrylic shelf of my Stillpoints ESS405 equipment rack is good for 34kg load). The Raven One appeared to tick all the boxes and was available in the UK for a reasonable £3K. I was impressed by all the internet chatter about the Raven One and the consistantly good published reviews. I felt confident in making my purchase without prior auditioning (not really possible anyway due to TW selling all they can produce for the UK market).
The sound is utterly natural with appropriate weight, great depth and scale to the image. I own a dCS Paganini SACD stack and the analogue front end is on a par, quality-wise.
Moving coil phono stage is built in to my Karan Reference MkII preamp with CJ SA350 power amp, Avalon Indra speakers and MIT Oracle MA-X cables.
The Raven One is simple to set up and forget. The quality of fit and finish is exceptional and the design will accomodate any make and weight of tonearm and is superbly versatile.
Highly recommended!

i own the raven 2 (and i turn 54 in a few weeks).
so i felt the same as "mid 40 guy" that life is too short and i was tired of screwing around with TTs.
in the last 10 years i have owned a music hall 5 and a 7.
then i abounded those in search of a better one so i got a thorns 135 i read it was the less fancy but same motor as the 124 from the uk off ebay that never ran at the right speed and i spend hours and days researching and messing with and with no one around to fix it for me i gave up , so i go back to ebay and after a bidding war i bought the lenco that cult is built around and hooked up a mono denon 102 and it sounded good until the angels sang or the piccolo played and you could hear it going from flat to sharp to flat .
i contacted the ebay guy i payed my nearly 600 bucks too and he suggest getting a power conditioner? he didn't care.
this sucked so i bought off of Craig s list a thorns 160 from 1980 and it was one of the top TT that year but it wasn't this year. it had a sweet sound but it was all plastic and when your shoe dropped the record skipped because it weighed about 2 pounds.
at this point i was thinking i should have stuck with the music hall 7 but it had been too dark and kind of dead sounding.
if i was a tinker i probably could have salvaged something here but i am not nor am i a systems or a number guy i am just a life long music lover and i know a good sound when i feel it.
so i spent some of my kids inheritance and bought the raven 2. its a raven one with a out side motor and 2 arms.
it is the best ten thousand i have ever spent.
the person that said money don't buy happiness has never heard my record player.
its as sure as the atomic clock.
or a baby in mothers arms.
i have a Decca jubilee at the end of a 12 inch ortofon.
the Decca its said is the closest cart to the tool that cut the record but it has no cantilever so it really needs that heavy and smooth ride (and a clean record)for it to mimic life was well as it does through my aspara hl horns.
i have not heard any other TT in this price range.
but this is what i know now , at their best a vintage TT can be great if you can tinker(or know one) but even at their best they are still vintage and they compare to the raven like a vintage Porsche or a cobra would to a new formula one or raven 2 in this case.
no purchase has ever made me happier.

I have my Raven 1 with Phantom II for almost a year now. Nice sounding new table, good price( before the price increase), build , look and smallish footprint with the option of using 2 arms which is a big plus. It's a breeze to setup and get going but i've found it sensitive to placement and imo the stillpoint feets are not that effective (sitting on a slab of bluestone) in my setup.

I've also acquired a Micro Seiki RX-5000 and slate plinted SP10 Mk2 (much cheaper i might add)recently.Now i prefer this 2 to the R1 despite using less arms on them.

So yes it may be good enough as the last table for some but not to all.