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| Raven Classic |
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Raven Audio Pro - the Raven Classic
Our First Guitar Amplifiers - The "Raven Classic" - Coming off the table.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Own one of a kind Raven Audio Monoblocks
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| One of a kind - Silhouette Monoblocks by Raven Audio |
This is the very first pair of prototypes for the Silhouette Mono Amplifiers. They are as you can say more than a little over-built using some extra fenders and trim so to speak. The center white chrome plated machined bronze cover and the gold colored chromed on/off switch trim piece that also matches the decorative badge on the back transformer cover are special pieces that were built and installed only on this pair of prototypes. Though beautifully made and trimmed out, it was decided that these are far too expensive trim pieces to reproduce on every Raven Audio amplifier.
So this pair is one of a kind and very special. The only thing I do not care for about these is the fact that every few months I have to pull them out of the rack, take the tubes out and polish the chrome like on an antique car or motorcycle. I do not have the patience. So I am going to put these up for sale so someone else can enjoy them. It's time that someone with a little more patience (and some chrome polish!) to own them. The sound is breath taking and the fact that they are hand made point to point wired makes them heirloom quality. They are indeed a fine example of some of the absolute best audio amplifiers on the planet. I will miss their unique beauty.
Raven Audio - behind the scenes
All
electronic components are hand wired and soldered. Extremely high end
quality parts and wire from WWII era. Some items cannot be copied no
matter how hard anyone tries. Tubes will be interchangeable for
different values & sound, and power will vary a bit as a result.
KT88, 6550, KT120, KT90, etc.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Raven Audio at the Sweet Spot Audio and More
RAVEN AUDIO IS COMING TO THE SWEET SPOT!
Looking forward to going down to the new location of the Sweet Spot Audio And More store to show our Raven Audio products. This will be the only retail location in Texas handling our Texas hand-crafted high end vacuum tube based audio products.
We brought $100,000.00 worth of some of the world's best high end audio
products to the Clear Lake Texas area! And I left with very little of it! Please go and visit our product line in the store now.
16868 Hwy 3 North, Webster, TX 77598. (281) 338-7768
Sweet Spot Audio and More website
Sweet Spot Audio and More on Facebook
Looking forward to going down to the new location of the Sweet Spot Audio And More store to show our Raven Audio products. This will be the only retail location in Texas handling our Texas hand-crafted high end vacuum tube based audio products.
We brought $100,000.00 worth of some of the world's best high end audio
products to the Clear Lake Texas area! And I left with very little of it! Please go and visit our product line in the store now.
16868 Hwy 3 North, Webster, TX 77598. (281) 338-7768
Sweet Spot Audio and More websiteSweet Spot Audio and More on Facebook
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Raven Audio wins BEST OF SHOW at Lone Star Audio Fest - 2012
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| "Best of Show" in Cost No Object category - Grapevine Room - Lone Star Audio Fest 2012 |
RAVEN AUDIO WINS BEST OF SHOW - at Lone Star Audio Fest That was held in Dallas, Texas over the first weekend of May.
We just found out that Raven Audio was awarded the "Best Of Show" award in the Cost No Object category which is the professional/commercial level of the top award for the show.
There is also a Do-It-Yourself Best of Show level of that award which was won by Odd Watt and a Budget Level Component award which was taken by Pi Audio. Raven Audio also tied for Best Room Presentation with Legacy Audio, a very well known high end speaker manufacturer that has won just about every major high end audio award in the business, before a tie breaker gave it to them. Congratulations Legacy!
Danny Richie's company GR Research won the second place Best Room Presentation award. We certainly had a great time and are honored to be granted any award at all considering this is our first rodeo so to speak.
Raven will begin selling product somewhere around June 1st. Of course we now have some gently used amplifiers for sale for anyone who might be interested. The ones we used at the show are now for sale. They are specially equipped with some really nice NOS tubes too.
Thanks Dallas, Texas!
The list below is of all of our products and others suppliers in each room.
Room 321:
Reference Grade Reflection Integrated
Reference Grade Shadow Stereo Amp
Reference Grade Shadow Stereo Preamplifier
Shadow Stereo Amplifier
Prototype 300B Mono Blocks
Nighthawk Integrated Amplifier
Blue Power Cable
Black Power Cable
Speaker Cables - Cambridge Wire with Audio Note banana plugs or C connectors.
Other components used:
Source: Raysonic 128 CD Player - upgraded with V-Caps by S.E. Han
PNL interconnect cables (purple)
Silver Speakers from Stereo Clarity (graciously provided by Steven Salazzo at the last minute to replace the room loading LS9s)
Downstairs Grapevine Room: BEST OF SHOW ROOM
RAVEN AUDIO products
Reference Grade Silhouette Mono Block Amplifiers (90% of the time playing in the room)
Regular Grade Silhouette Mono Block Amplifiers (physically located on the floor - sitting outside of the others)
Reference Grade Silhouette Preamplifier
Blue Power Cable
Black Power Cable
Speaker Cables - Cambridge Wire with Audio Note banana plugs connectors. Sources: Raysonic 238 CD Player - upgraded with Jensen paper-in-oil silver lead and jacketed capacitors - installed by S.E. Han
Haans T-20 turntable with an old Black Widow tonearm
Denon 103R Cartridge
Lighting from Ikea
Stands from VTI and Knight, Canada.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Lone Star Audio Fest 2012
Thanks Russ from Polk Audio for taking a quick video of our room at the Lone Star Audio Fest this year.
RAVEN AUDIO PRO & DOWNFALL RISING
The professional division of Raven Audio has for a while now been a sponsor of the Lufkin Alternative Metal band Downfall Rising. Last weekend we were honored to have Rachel Hanks come by and blow our minds with her explosive industrial strength vocal ability. She is one of the strongest singers on the planet, and for some reason as yet undiscovered, which might be very good for everyone. Maybe the time is now for the planets to align and make dreams come true!
All we can say about Rachel Hanks and her incredibly talented guitar player fiance' Brian Fruge is WOW! We hope she decides to come back and possibly make it all official, but if not.... we sure enjoyed playing music with you guys. Thanks Brian and Rachel!
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Raven Audio Nighthawk
Of course I have been working with SE for quite a while, and until we had it working and sounding good enough to represent Raven Audio I was not going to agree to bring it here. But now it's here!!!
This is exciting stuff! Feast your eyes on the new Nighthawk.
Now you will have to trade your Integrates into a Raven product.
Yaaaaay!!!
Love,
Dave
Raven Audio Pro & Downfall Rising - Lufkin Daily News
Here we go! First of the new promo for the Raven Audio Pro sponsored local Alternative Metal Rock band: DOWNFALL RISING!!!
Sincerely,
Dave Thomson
Posted: Sunday, November 27, 2011 1:15 am
By JESSICA COOLEY/The Lufkin News
Members of Lufkin-based band Downfall Rising got a taste of the rock ’n’ roll dream after attention from a Grammy-winning musician took them on the road trip of their lives earlier this month.
Sponsored by Raven Audio owner Dave Thomson, band members Dave Cellars, Tyler Lewing, Aaron Hillin, Greg Wenrich and Stephen Rushing took a tour bus to Nashville to meet with Grammy-award winning musician Bil Vorndick. Out of his Nashville-based studio, Vorndick has recorded over 600 albums and had five No. 1 hits in five different genres and 45 Grammy nominations with eight Grammy wins.
A single FedEx package delivered to Thomson by lead vocalist Cellars set the ball in motion for the two-year-old band’s first big break, according to drummer Lewing.
“Dave delivers for FedEx, and he’s been delivering to Dave Thomson for quite a few years now. He heard us and thought, ‘This is good.’ He pulled out the sponsorship,” Lewing said, describing their music as pushing the envelope between soft metal and radio rock.
It was through Thomson’s connections that the band was able to meet with Vorndick, as the two knew each other from the 1970s country music scene.
“He hadn’t talked to Bil in 10 or 12 years, but he called him and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got something for you. It’s a group of guys you need to hear,’” Lewing said. “Bil normally does country-bluegrass, but he heard us and said, ‘Yeah. I want to talk to them, I want to meet them, I want to hear them play.’ That’s how everything fell into place.”
On Nov. 14, bags and instruments packed, the five guys boarded the tour bus to Nashville, stopping along the way at a number of tourist spots, including Elvis Presley’s home in Memphis. The climax of their trip was when Vorndick came to the tour bus. It went better than they ever expected, Lewing said.
“He stayed for three hours, which blew us away, and then invited us back to his house to meet his wife and go hang out in his personal studio. We have an agreement to work with him,” Lewing said. “He sat down and started helping us write a song. It’s not our usual, but it definitely has our style and flair.”
“It is going to be a really good song that all the Texas girls are going to love,” guitarist and vocalist Hillin said with an air of mystery.
Besides the drive and determination, building a large female fan base, Lewing said, is just one of many key elements to any band’s success.
“If you can get the ladies to come to your concerts, that’s really important. Guys will come to your shows because of the girls,” Lewing said with a laugh.
“We’re not cute, so we have to write really good music,” Hillin joked.
Exposing them to some of his musical prowess, Vorndick also gave the band some homework to do. Guitarist Wenrich said they will be devoting a lot of time the next several months to Vorndick’s words of wisdom.
“We need to gather a street team for some of the bigger cities in Texas — throw up flyers and signs and just get the buzz going,” Winrich said. “We plan on hooking up with some booking agent so we can start touring in Texas.”
“He gave us a lot of information for building our team. We’ve got a lot of things to take care of, but it’s in the works,” Lewing said.
If the band does make it big, they said home will always be Lufkin and the fans that helped them get their start.
“Without the fans, you can’t do anything,” Hillin said. “You’ve got to remember where you came from.”
For more information about the band and to check out their music video of “Go Off,” go to downfallrising.com.
Their next concert is scheduled for Dec. 3 at Warehouse Live in Houston. Tickets are $10. Their next hometown show will be 8 p.m. Dec. 10 at Lufkin Lanes.
Jessica Cooley’s email address is jcooley@lufkindailynews.com.
Sincerely,
Dave Thomson
Posted: Sunday, November 27, 2011 1:15 am
By JESSICA COOLEY/The Lufkin News
Members of Lufkin-based band Downfall Rising got a taste of the rock ’n’ roll dream after attention from a Grammy-winning musician took them on the road trip of their lives earlier this month.
Sponsored by Raven Audio owner Dave Thomson, band members Dave Cellars, Tyler Lewing, Aaron Hillin, Greg Wenrich and Stephen Rushing took a tour bus to Nashville to meet with Grammy-award winning musician Bil Vorndick. Out of his Nashville-based studio, Vorndick has recorded over 600 albums and had five No. 1 hits in five different genres and 45 Grammy nominations with eight Grammy wins.
A single FedEx package delivered to Thomson by lead vocalist Cellars set the ball in motion for the two-year-old band’s first big break, according to drummer Lewing.
“Dave delivers for FedEx, and he’s been delivering to Dave Thomson for quite a few years now. He heard us and thought, ‘This is good.’ He pulled out the sponsorship,” Lewing said, describing their music as pushing the envelope between soft metal and radio rock.
It was through Thomson’s connections that the band was able to meet with Vorndick, as the two knew each other from the 1970s country music scene.
“He hadn’t talked to Bil in 10 or 12 years, but he called him and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got something for you. It’s a group of guys you need to hear,’” Lewing said. “Bil normally does country-bluegrass, but he heard us and said, ‘Yeah. I want to talk to them, I want to meet them, I want to hear them play.’ That’s how everything fell into place.”
On Nov. 14, bags and instruments packed, the five guys boarded the tour bus to Nashville, stopping along the way at a number of tourist spots, including Elvis Presley’s home in Memphis. The climax of their trip was when Vorndick came to the tour bus. It went better than they ever expected, Lewing said.
“He stayed for three hours, which blew us away, and then invited us back to his house to meet his wife and go hang out in his personal studio. We have an agreement to work with him,” Lewing said. “He sat down and started helping us write a song. It’s not our usual, but it definitely has our style and flair.”
“It is going to be a really good song that all the Texas girls are going to love,” guitarist and vocalist Hillin said with an air of mystery.
Besides the drive and determination, building a large female fan base, Lewing said, is just one of many key elements to any band’s success.
“If you can get the ladies to come to your concerts, that’s really important. Guys will come to your shows because of the girls,” Lewing said with a laugh.
“We’re not cute, so we have to write really good music,” Hillin joked.
Exposing them to some of his musical prowess, Vorndick also gave the band some homework to do. Guitarist Wenrich said they will be devoting a lot of time the next several months to Vorndick’s words of wisdom.
“We need to gather a street team for some of the bigger cities in Texas — throw up flyers and signs and just get the buzz going,” Winrich said. “We plan on hooking up with some booking agent so we can start touring in Texas.”
“He gave us a lot of information for building our team. We’ve got a lot of things to take care of, but it’s in the works,” Lewing said.
If the band does make it big, they said home will always be Lufkin and the fans that helped them get their start.
“Without the fans, you can’t do anything,” Hillin said. “You’ve got to remember where you came from.”
For more information about the band and to check out their music video of “Go Off,” go to downfallrising.com.
Their next concert is scheduled for Dec. 3 at Warehouse Live in Houston. Tickets are $10. Their next hometown show will be 8 p.m. Dec. 10 at Lufkin Lanes.
Jessica Cooley’s email address is jcooley@lufkindailynews.com.
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