The Raven Black Night is our reference turntable. Naturally, the experience gained over the last few years stood us in good stead for developing the Black Night, yet despite drawing on these experiences, the Black Night also incorporates many innovative features not seen before in this form. The Raven Black Night is a truly monumental turntable, as its sheer size and weight testify. Despite this, thanks to the proportions, colour and choice of materials, the design remains pleasing and harmonious.

In developing the Black Night, our aim was to build a turntable that could top even our own Raven AC in terms of subtlety, ease and silence. In this we have succeeded, and the results are seriously impressive. The Black Night portrays the music’s every detail with subtlety and stereo depth, whether it be human voice or instruments. Everywhere, you’ll discover nuances that had previously remained hidden. Attack and decay of transient notes are reproduced impressively. Thanks to the three-motor drive and the battery power supply, the Raven Black Night does its job with poise, serenity and composure, yet just like the other TW-Acustic turntables, it is highly dynamic, involving and rich in timbre.

The Raven Black Night is incredibly musical, its spatial presentation is so three-dimensional and tangible that the music is always reproduced with the utmost authenticity. As with the Raven AC, the Black Night also provides for the use of up to four tonearms. As an additional feature, we have developed an armboard that allows VTA to be safely and accurately adjusted during operation. This is achieved via a knurled thumbwheel, which allows adjustment to be precisely carried out without float.

Product description: Raven Black Night

• High mass turntable
• Weight: Chassis 30kg
• Platter: 20kg
• Motor unit: 10kg
• Motor control unit: 5kg
• Dimensions: 470mm x 420mm (wxd), motor 270mm x 270mm
• Total footprint: 790mm x 420mm (wxd)

Chassis construction:

• Material: 60mm aluminium, ceramic bead blasted and silk matt black anodised.
• Inlet: 25mm of TW-Acustic’s proprietary Delrin-based compound, rigidly screwed to chassis.
• Feet and all other attachments are also ceramic bead blasted and silk matt black anodised aluminium.
• Feet: four, ceramic bead blasted and silk matt black anodised aluminium, designed and built by TW-Acustic featuring ball and spring suspension.

Platter construction:

• Material: 40mm copper in combination with 20mm of our special compound let into and screwed together with the copper platter.

Bearing:

• Bronze bearing, 16mm hard metal shaft with large ground radius running on a thrust washer of ‘Material S ® (green)’. This is a special low-pressure PE based material with a very low coefficient of friction and very high wear resistance, giving a long maintenance free life without the need for additional lubrication.
• Bushing is machined exactly to fit the bearing with zero float, yet remains replaceable.

Motor:

• 60mm aluminium, ceramic bead blasted and silk matt black anodised, in identical shape to the Raven Black Night but 60% smaller. 4 height-adjustable feet on the outer corners. 3 motors arranged in an arrow formation, pointing towards the platter.
• Drive belt is guided through the drive pulleys and around the circumference of the platter.

Motor control unit:

• Two built-in power supplies - one is exclusively used to charge the batteries. In normal operation the motors run from the battery supply alone, controlled by a microcontroller.
• Switching between battery and mains supplies occurs automatically without interrupting operation, as does battery charging. A remaining charge indicator is included on the front panel.
• Battery complement: 20 x rechargeable AA cells.
• Run time on battery operation only: Approx. 20 hours.

Armboard:

• Up to four tonearms may be fitted. Armboards are equipped with an on-the-fly VTA riser, offering an adjustment range of up to 10mm with zero float.