Da Vinci AAS Gabriel

Axel, ...... back to the object of this thread: in terms of both - craftsmanship and tooling - I would go for the Raven (but I don't need to....).
Both - Raven (whatever incarnation) as well as Gabriel do both desperately need a working isolation to be able to show their merits.
Putting them "hard-coded" on any solid ground/shelf, rack means simply giving (rather throwing....) away 50% of the possible performance.

As for the RPM 9 with thread.
It needs some experience to get the right "feel" (if you don't have the right equipment) as far as the thread tension goes. Too much - pretty bad. Too less - pretty bad too...
"Right" tension - pretty amazing......

And yes - I would take the Verdier any time above the two contenders.
Preferably a Verdier made prior to 1993.

Dertonarm,

Did you ever test the Verdier for stray magnetic fields above the platter that would in fact negatively impact a cartridges performance by interfering with the cartridges magnetics?

Dgad,
yes - I did. About 18 years ago. First I was suspicious about this too. The big magnetic rings relatively close to the tiny magnets inside the cartridge,....hmmm.

However, - as the tests showed (and some measurements done at the technical high school Munich) the 2 magnetic rings are embedded inside two steel "rings" which do very effectively shield the magnetic field - at least from dispensing vertically towards the platter surface.
There was no detectable interaction with the magnets in cartridges nor did the test show any induced hum.
It performed flawless with a very wide range of cartridges from Ortofon MC-5000, Supex, Koetsu, FR, Grasshopper v.d.Hul, Dynavector,Kiseki, Ikeda EMPL, SPU and Miyabi.
The Verdier is a fairly "raw" concept and was from its very beginnings as a DIY-project introduced in the late 1970ies in the french L'Audiophile-magazine. It is however a smart design which gives - proper set-up - extremely good sonic results and has some very clever design features which all do work for the better in performance (if not in looks....).

The versions built prior to 1993 are sonically better to later production.
The versions with pure magnetic bearing in the horizontal plane - no added ball.
I am referring to the La Platine Verdier only.

A permanent magnet cannot induce hum. There is no need to test it.

The stray magnetic field if unshielded could change VTF as the cartridge moves across the record closer to the spindle/ magnetic bearing. just try working on a cartridge with any screw driver.