I have heard The Ravens, Fern & Roby‘s ($9,500/pair) at other audio shows, and I have always been impressed. In fact, I was so impressed with them at AXPONA that I wrote a post about them then, but without a doubt, this was the best I have ever heard them sound.
In fact, I had just spent time listening to QUAD 57 ESLs, and I was shocked at how great this system put together by Fern & Roby and ModWright Instruments sounded. The Ravens have most of the qualities of the QUADs but with a much bigger sweet spot. And, to tell you the truth, they sounded great anywhere I sat or stood in the room. Of course, since they are single-driver speakers, they are more coherent than the QUAD 57s.
About this System
So, what else was in the system at this show? Well, let’s start with the amp. It was Dan Wright’s newest creation, the ModWright Ambrose Ai325 Tube Integrated Amplifier ($9,995). It uses two pairs of directly heated 300B tubes in a class-AB push-pull mode and can deliver 25 watts per channel.
The analog source was a Fern & Roby Tredegar turntable with a Schroeder CB tonearm ($16,500), a Soundsmith Zephyr MIMC ($1,995) and a ModWright PH 9.0 phono stage ($2,900).
The digital source was a Dan Wright-modified Pioneer UHD LX-500 CD player. Everything was sitting on a new Fern & Roby equipment rack ($6,500). All of the cables were from Stereolab, LLC/Black Cat Cable.
Stay Tuned
This system comes to us from two of the best young designers around, Christopher Hildebrand and Dan Wright. They brought a system to the show that had great tone and tonal balance. It is also a system that can fit into a small space and not overwhelm the room. The best news of all is that Dan and I talked about me doing a review of the amp. I can’t wait! So, hopefully, you will be reading more on this amp in a few weeks.
