The traditional separates system has long been the bedrock of hi-fi, but it’s not for everyone.

Having multiple boxes can quickly eat up space, not to mention your hard-earned cash if you’re not careful. Which is why we are tempted by the all-in-one, just-add-speakers Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier, now £999 at Richer Sounds.

It's a modern, lifestyle-friendly system that incorporates amplification, DAC, streaming, preamplifier and even a phono stage into just one box. Pretty neat, right?

Luckily, this is no jack of all trades, master of none situation – our expert review team were big fans of the amplifier’s friendly, easy-going presentation and stylish design.

The Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier certainly has a long list of functions, but that’s of little use if the sound quality doesn’t measure up.

Luckily, the Attessa delivered in spades during our thorough testing process.

“The Roksan Attessa is a wonderfully genial performer no matter what you play. It has such a likeable sonic personality from the get-go, that we find ourselves happily playing song after song through the unit,” our Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier review reads.

“There is a decent amount of body and solidity to the sound, ample detail and clarity – all good hallmarks for when you’re listening to a wide variety of music, from John Williams to Yard Act, Taylor Swift to Eminem.”

We wish the Attessa had subtler textures and larger-scale dynamics, but this is a very likeable and enjoyable presentation all round.

Setup is also straightforward – not always a given with streaming products – and network connection remains blissfully stable and stutter-free throughout weeks of testing.

As you’d hope, there are a plethora of features on board. The BluOS platform has Bluetooth, AirPlay 2, Tidal Connect, Spotify Connect, Internet radio, Amazon Music, Qobuz and Deezer all on board to cater for your streaming needs.

Physical connections are not neglected either, with two inputs apiece for optical, coaxial, and line-level RCA. The MM phono socket can connect directly to a turntable, and the front panel has a 3.5mm headphone jack also.

Network connection is available over wi-fi or ethernet, and there is file support up to hi-res 24-bit/192kHz PCM.

With ample personality, visual flair and a musical, likeable presentation, the Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier has a lot going for it – especially with £600 off at Richer Sounds.

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Read our Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier review

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It's not often that we get news of a whole lot of new audio products at the start of the year. About 12 years ago, when the Venetian Hotel was the home to all the high-end hi-fi brands during the annual CES show, the beginning of the new year meant feasting your eyes on very large, very shiny, very expensive hi-fi – from giant D'Agostino and McIntosh amps and Focal speakers to innovative new audio products from Meridian, Naim and more.

As the world changed and the consumer-tech landscape evolved, CES became home more to the latest innovations in the internet of things, smart home and AI tech, and, of course, new TV technology.

In the world of hi-fi however, things became a little less frantic and the start of the year has traditionally been rather subdued, with the Bristol Hi-Fi Show at the end of February traditionally (for the UK hi-fi press/industry, at least) kicking things off for the year. January is usually for catching up, reacquainting yourself with emails, and planning out the year ahead.

2026, however, has started right out of the gate, with a small horde of new hi-fi products from big-name brands that are genuinely exciting – and, more pertinently, priced sensibly for general consumers. In January alone, we had the official launch of Cambridge Audio's L/R wireless speaker systems range, two new NAD stereo amplifiers, Mission's half-width 778S music streamer and 778CDT CD transport, Onkyo's Muse streaming amplifiers, two affordable Sony turntables, and Roksan's Caspian 4G Streaming preamplifier and Power Amplifier.

Phew.

While we've had to admire the bulk of these new products from afar, I was lucky enough to see the new Roksan Caspian 4G pre/power duo in person at a London launch event a couple of weeks ago.

The team played a few songs during the demo (Misirlou/Ah Ya Zein by The Ayoub Sisters sounded particularly fluid and spacious), but I'll reserve judgement on the sound quality until we have a review pair in our more familiar-sounding test rooms.

But what stood out most to me during this preview was the Roksan's design – in terms of build quality, user-focused elements, and, yes, aesthetic looks.

As with most of our readers, the first time we ever encounter a new hi-fi product is through a press picture or two – and it certainly needs to make a first impression. While sound quality is undoubtedly what matters most in hi-fi products, the way a product operates, how well made it is and how nice it is to use are key factors as well. Even how it presents the playing information can be a point of interest – these are products we'll be using every day, after all, so all of this, to my mind, really matters.

Most modern hi-fi, especially those products with wi-fi streaming built-in, tend to be seen in two forms. They are either minimal boxes with a large, front panel-dominating OLED display that shows off album artwork, track information, even digital VU meters – think of the Cambridge Audio 150 Evo SE, Eversolo DMP-A6, the new Onkyo Muse; or they go in the opposite direction and embrace the retro design and multi-button aesthetic – the likes of, for example, the NAD C 3050 with MDC2 BluOS module.

Some try to combine the large-screen demands with the retro aesthetic (Ruark Audio R610), while others, usually at the budget end, forego any screens, buttons or adornments altogether for tiny, anonymous box (hello, Cambridge MXN10 and WiiM Pro Plus).

While a screen is undoubtedly lovely to have, there are plenty of us out there who really don't require it. Things such as track information can be seen and more clearly read on the tablet or smartphone controlling the streamed music; many of us simply don't want to have any visual distractions from the all-important music being played, either.

Roksan takes a different middle-ground approach. It recognises that there needs to be some quick visual affirmation for checking the essentials – input, volume and power – but, instead of a full colour screen, it opts for what I think are simple but impactful orange strips of light that are both informative and look rather fetching.

It's the same design I encountered when we tested the Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier; but in the 4G Caspian pre/power duo, Roksan’s R&D team has taken a couple steps further into thinking about the relationship between the product and the end user. I like that, for instance, when you change the volume on the preamp, there are corresponding LEDs on the power amplifier that also shows the change. It stops the power amp from being what is normally a passive, anonymous product and makes it feel more integrated in the system. Interestingly, that LED connection between the two amps is done using Bluetooth.

I also like how the icons for the inputs are symbols, and can be customised to represent the source, such as a compact disc, a TV, a record, a games console and so on. It all adds a touch of personality in a way that doesn't intrude or distract overall.

The Roksan brand has always had a visual flair that made it stand out from the crowd – just look at the Caspian M2 amplifier and M2 CD player that we still hold in high esteem. They are so full of character and personality; and that goes hand in hand with their (usually) powerful, dynamic and fluid sound and well-engineered internals.

Roksan's new Caspian 4G streaming preamp/power amp (£6500 / $ 8250 for the pair) also don't quite feel the need to blend and disappear into the woodwork as much as many contemporaries. There is care taken with the machining of the chassis and overall look of the products. In the samples we saw at the demo, the way the extruded heatsinks are machined looks neatly done. There are no exposed bolt holes, and the front and top are made of one piece – a departure from most amplifiers we see, which are usually made as a thin aluminium box with a thicker metal front.

All of this is part of parent company Monitor Audio Group's “Transparent Design Philosophy”, which aims to “balance technical performance with practical usability and restrained industrial design”. It means the R&D team gives as much thought, care and importance to the product’s design and intuitive user-experience, as it does to the internal engineering for sound quality, and “one is never allowed to overpower the other”.

It's an approach that should be applauded in an era where classic hi-fi separates need to work a bit harder to justify themselves in a world with smarter, multi-functional products that cost less. And, of course, one where customers are becoming that bit more discerning and want the most value and reward for their money spent, across sound, design, and usability.

In hi-fi, the small things really do matter.

Of course, there are plenty of other aspects of the Roksan Caspian 4G flagship duo to get us excited – the use of an own-design discrete DAC circuitry, the reliable BluOS streaming platform, its premium price point that fills a gap in the market – and we can't wait to spend hours and days playing all kinds of music through it to get a sense of its sonic character once we get our hands on a review sample.

But it says a lot that, among the flurry of new product launches so far this year, it's Roksan and its thoughtful design points that have stayed in my mind. A first impression goes a long way, it seems.

In just over a week, however, I'm hoping to encounter even more new products that will occupy my mind, at the Bristol Hi-Fi Show 2026. It will be my first opportunity to see the new Dali Sonik speaker range, while Neat is promising a sequel to its quirky little Iota Alpha floorstanders – and Rega has teased a new turntable will be shown, too.

We'll be bringing you all the news and photos as we cover the show – see you at Bristol!

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Roksan has added two new models to its Caspian Series 4G range: a streaming preamplifier and matching power amplifier.

The Caspian Streaming Pre-Amplifier and Caspian Power Amplifier are "engineered to deliver breathtaking musicality with effortless power and control," according to Roksan.

Following the acquisition by the Monitor Audio Group in 2016, the brand says these products are designed to capture the essence of the 40-year-old Roksan brand, but take it firmly into the future. The new duo join the two Caspian 4G integrated amplifiers (one with streaming) that were launched in 2024.

The Caspian Streaming Pre-Amplifier uses the established BluOS streaming platform, bringing support for Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz (and their Connect versions) along with a host of music streaming and internet radio options.

You can also play stored music from connected NAS devices via wi-fi or Ethernet, with maximum resolution supported up to 24-bit/192kHz PCM files (but no DSD). The amp is Roon Ready certified, too.

It uses a fully balanced analogue preamplifier section, along with multiple dedicated power supplies to ensure clean current delivery with minimal noise. The ground-switching input design aims to minimise cross-talk between connected devices, too.

Additionally, it uses Roksan's bespoke 'Rapture' DAC circuit, a discrete, dual-mono, differential current-conveyor design, that the brand says should result in "precise stereo imaging and exceptional resolution".

The BluOS app can be used to control all your sources and streaming music playback, while Roksan also offers its MaestroUnite app for the initial hardware set-up and to fine-tune the sound to your environment, thanks to the preamp's DSP settings. There are four options – Intelligent Tone, Intelligent Boundary, Intelligent Speaker and Intelligent Phono – that help optimise the Caspian's sound to your speakers' placement and more.

The Caspian Power Amplifier is designed to "uncompromising drive and power" and can be used in stereo or mono-block configurations. Roksan states it offers 105 watts per channel into 8 ohms, or 200 watts into 4 ohms. It uses Roksan's advanced 'Euphoria' Class A/B amplification, which features a precision-engineered analogue circuitry to "ensure a transparent signal path that preserves every detail and dynamic nuance of the music," says Roksan.

Individual power supplies are also used for the the current and voltage amplification stages, which promises a purer, cleaner and more dynamic sound, while there is increased voltage headroom to prevent clipping.

Around the back, you'll find a combination of analogue and digital inputs, including balanced XLR inputs, optical and coaxial connections. There is also an HDMI ARC input to integrate the Roksans in a TV/AV system, and a MM/MC phono input for turntables.

A minimal OLED display strip on the front panel shows key information such as source icons and volume, as indicated with orange LEDs – similar to the ones we experienced on the Attessa Streaming Amplifier.

The single control dial on the Streaming Pre-Amplifier works for volume and selecting sources. A hybrid digital-analogue volume control is used to reduce crosstalk, distortion and ensure a stable channel balance at all settings.

Both Caspian 4G units feature extruded heatsinks, chamfered machined edges and custom-built internal antennas, and are hand-built in Monitor Audio Group's headquarters in Essex, UK.

The Roksan Caspian 4G Streaming Pre-Amplifier and Caspian Power Amplifier can be bought separately or together as part of a system, and are available now in silver or black finishes. The prices are as follows:

Caspian Streaming Pre-Amplifier: £3500 / $4500 / €4000

Caspian Power Amplifier: £3000 / $3750 / €3500

Caspian Streaming Pre & Power Amplifier System: £6500 / $8250 / €7500

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While we hold sound quality – and value for money – paramount in our estimation of any hi-fi product here at What Hi-Fi?, sometimes it's the little things that make us take notice and appreciate a product even more.

If you'll indulge me a little here, I'd like to highlight elements of design that are worth appreciating – and have made an impression on me and in how I use them – that have nothing to do with sound quality.

This musing was brought about by the presence of the vintage Michell Argo preamplifier (pictured at top) in our test rooms. It sounded lovely; what also drew my attention was the upside-down labelling on the connections at the back of the unit. I'd seen this before in various Cambridge Audio products over the years, present in the budget Alva Duo phono preamp to the high-end Edge A integrated amp, and it always struck me as a thoughtful little touch from the designers, showing they've made note of the practical way someone uses a product in real life. Most of us tend to have a piece of hi-fi equipment – an amplifier, a streamer, a CD player – placed on a rack or cabinet, and we have to lean over it to plug in another component or change cables. Having the same label written upside down on the back – and therefore being able to read it the right way up when leaning over the product – makes it that much easier to plug into the right set of connections or read what input you're using.

It's a small thing, but it's a nice addition from manufacturers that always gets an appreciative nod from us when we come across it. I most recently saw it again in Austrian Audio's debut headphone amplifier, Full Score One, and couldn't help but doff an invisible cap to the designers for adding this simple but practical element.

And it isn't just labels...

My appreciation of a product goes deeper than just mere labels. In fact, I'm sure most of us audiophiles who enjoy using hi-fi kit have happily noted the smooth feel of a volume dial with just the right level of damping, the satisfying clunk of a switch or button, or the way a CD tray operates in smooth silence. We can all appreciate when something is built to a certain high standard of quality, and we notice it even more so when it's done with obsessive love and attention by someone who cares about using a piece of hi-fi as much as you do.

Esoteric's ultra-high-end K-05XD CD player has a lovely disc-loading tray that glides as it performs its duties, but more budget models such as the long-standing Marantz CD6007 mimic that smooth and super-quiet operation. It's always nice to twiddle a dial or flick a switch and get the ultimate satisfaction when you discover it has heft and weight, and is made with care and quality.

It's why we particularly love old, retro products that offer that same tactile feel. I had the chance to see some of Technics' very first turntables last year at the brand's Osaka office in Japan, and spent a good few minutes moving the speed-switching lever on the very first SL-1200 direct drive DJ turntable from 1972. The turntable wasn't working or hooked up to anything, but moving the lever between 33, off and 45 speeds gave the most satisfying feel and noise – a proper weighty clunk and definitive motion that I couldn't help but feel nostalgic for.

But that's enough about old products. While it may seem like newer kit just isn't built in the same way as those from the 70s and 80s, with heavy metals and proper heft and clunk behind the buttons (or at least, not without paying a considerable amount of money for that level of quality), it's actually in a much more cutting-edge modern arena that certain manufacturers are offering neat touches that make using something more amenable.

Touchscreen or no screen at all?

You might debate whether a colour display screen is needed on a music streamer or not – it's lovely to see album artwork, but all your controls and information are in your iPad or smart device, no? Yet we've seen a rise in touchscreen displays on products from HiFi Rose, Eversolo and WiiM – and it's surprisingly been more useful than I ever thought it would be.

We're testing the WiiM Ultra streamer at the moment and I can begrudgingly admit just how useful its touchscreen has been. While my smartphone is usually always in my hand and so controlling the WiiM and choosing music is a mere finger tap or two away, there are times when I've either left my phone in another room or it's simply not within reach as it's charging. Depending on how your listening room is laid out and where your hi-fi is placed, it may not be practical to lean over and prod at the streamer's touchscreen to use it, but our kit rack is by the sofa, and it has been the easiest thing to simply reach over and start a playlist or radio saved in presets, or to change the volume or control playback. It's a nice way to interact with the streamer and means less time spent looking at your smartphone and all its distractions – something many of us are looking to achieve, especially when listening to music.

You can perform even more functions through the Eversolo DMP-A6's touchscreen display, including accessing any downloaded music app and going through all the playlists, artists and albums in each, just as you would on a smartphone. Ultimately, both ways involve looking at a screen, but I wasn't prepared for how often I could do what I needed simply by using the product's touchscreen rather than picking up my smartphone and poking around the control app.

You might argue that most hi-fi products don't need a distracting screen at all, especially if we're trying to focus on the music. The majority of Naim streamers don't have a screen at all, and we've never missed them.

I rather like Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier's neat half-way solution, which doesn't use a large display but instead features a slim row of illuminated picture icons that relate to which input/source you're using. You can customise and assign the icon images – a TV, a CD, a game controller, a DVD player, a record with a tonearm – to each source, and it adds a personal touch to a product that might otherwise be a large metal slab. Plus, you can see which source is activated at a glance without the full glare of a display distracting you when you just want to lose yourself in the music.

Again, it's only a small thing – but it's little, thoughtful elements like these that have left an impression and made me appreciate how certain manufacturers and designers have found ways to make using hi-fi kit that bit easier and more pleasurable.

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If you’re a regular reader and familiar with Roksan’s Caspian range of hi-fi separates from years gone by, you’ll know how big this news is. The Caspian M2 CD and M2 amplifier were (and still are) a formidable pairing and we have recommended many a system using these two products as the main building blocks.

Now, more than ten years after we reviewed the original M2, Roksan has decided to skip a generation (in name) and unveil the Caspian Series G4.

The new range starts life relatively modestly with just two products: the Caspian Integrated Amplifier and the Caspian Streaming Amplifier. However, Roksan has already teased on its website, that a matching Caspian 4G Power Amplifier will arrive at some point in 2025.

Both amplifiers are rated at 105 Watts (into eight ohms), with the main difference being that the streaming version is powered by the BluOS streaming platform, which you can find on products from Bluesound, NAD and Dali. It supports high-res audio files up to 24-bit/192kHz from streaming services or networked hard drives.

From the images we have seen, both new amps seem to share a similar design language to Roksan’s current Attessa range of components, with sleek lines, chamfered edges and custom extruded heatsinks part of the design language.

Both amps boast a high-resolution, high-contrast monochrome OLED display with customisable input options for assigning your various sources. The streaming variant's fascia also gets control buttons for play/pause/next track.

Powering each amplifier is Euphoria, Roksan’s Class AB amplifier technology which, according to the company, “excels in power and finesse”. It uses individual power supplies for the current and voltage amps to help produce a purer sound.

There’s a new analogue pre-amplifier section, too, designed to keep the signal as clean as possible, while a ground-switching input aims to reduce interference from other components in your system chain.

The digital brain behind the amplifiers is Roksan’s Rapture DAC technology, which can supposedly extract more information from the conversion process than traditional DAC designs.

Both amplifiers feature a hybrid digital-analogue volume control, a dedicated moving magnet phono stage, balanced and unbalanced inputs, coaxial and optical digital inputs and even HDMI eARC. Inside, you'll find a bespoke internal antenna design for Bluetooth (and Wi-Fi on the streaming model).

Roksan has built its own control app – MaestroUnite – which gives you access to a range of set-up options and features for the amplifiers, including headphone sensitivity, analogue input gain, balance and standby.

It also allows you to access Roksan’s intelligent DSP engine, allowing for a degree of fine-tuning through four Roksan technologies: Intelligent Tone, Intelligent Boundary, Intelligent Speaker and Intelligent Phono.

The Caspian Streaming Amplifier costs £4000 / $5000 / €4500 while the Caspian Integrated Amplifier costs £3000 / $3750 / €3500. Both are available in either silver or black finishes.

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While Prime Day is just about to kick off at Amazon, Richer Sounds is having a flash sale of its own. There are some mega hi-fi deals to be had over at the established retailer, and this Roksan K3 CD Di discount is absolutely one you should check out if you're in the market for something to give your shiny compact discs a real boost. 

A very big cut to a five-star model, we can't think of a better CD player deal than this one. We tested the K3 CD Di at £1300, but this major slashing of roughly £500 drops that price down to just £799 at Richer Sounds if you're a VIP member (it's free to sign up). If you're not a VIP member the deal price is £899, but that's still a very worthwhile fall of £400. Either way, it's a bargain!

The best Roksan K3 CD Di CD player deal

A CD player with digital inputs and Roksan's excellent built-in DAC, the CD Di joined the excellent K3 range alongside the brand's sole-purpose CD player and the five-star rated K3 integrated amplifier, the latter of which is also on sale at Richer Sounds at the time of writing. 

The K3 CD Di offers optical and coaxial digital inputs and outputs, meaning you can plug in other digital sources to take advantage of the unit's onboard DAC. Like the rest of the K3 line, it's a bit of a chunky unit, albeit with that same sense of refinement and quality we also find in the integrated amplifier sibling.

Capable of handling data streams up to 24-bit/192kHz, the K3 CD Di is a genuine pleasure to listen to. Thanks to its bold, broad soundstage, there's so much scale and dimensionality to the performances on display, with rich-sounding instruments set within an awesome amount of space. It's not back-footed either, offering the sort of attack, snap and dynamism that makes music sound forceful, front-footed and, crucially, fun. 

For a deeply musical CD player with superb pedigree at a monumentally good price, we're struggling to think of how this deal could be bettered. Head over to Richer Sounds if you're keen to investigate further.

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If you're currently hunting for a five-star amplifier but want to get your money's worth, we have found a deal that's going to knock your socks off. The Roksan K3 integrated amplifier is a stunning all-round performer that earned five stars when we reviewed it a few years back, boasting that punchy, precise sound we've come to expect from a company that rarely disappoints.

This isn't just a few poxy pounds or pennies shaved off the RRP, either. We tested the K3 at £1250, with prices actually rising at certain retailers in the subsequent years. This major discount of over £550 takes that price down to just £699 at Richer Sounds, although you do have to be a VIP member to take advantage (it's free to sign up).

The best Roksan K3 integrated amp deal

As the centrepiece of a budding budget system, you couldn't go far wrong with the awesome Roksan K3 integrated amplifier. Boasting 140W of Class A/B amplification into 8 ohms, the Roksan fires out the sort of pulsating sound that only leaves you wanting to hear more.

That big sound goes with its big build. The K3 is built like a tank yet still retains a sense of refinement, not to mention a host of onboard connectivity options. The integrated amplifier offers five line-level inputs, including a built-in moving magnet phono stage for hooking up a turntable, not to mention a 3.5mm headphone jack for direct listening.

The K3 really is all about power and potency. With its large, broad soundstage that grants punchy, taut basslines and texture, depth and detail across the sound spectrum, this is a unit that blends fun, bravado and competency in equal measures. As we stated in our original five-star review, the Roksan delivers "all the grit and vigour that a track needs. It’s probably in these big energy moments that the K3 shines the best, but it has the ability to do it all, and do it well". 

Setting off on your hi-fi journey? There are worse places to start. Get yourself over to Richer Sounds and see what the fuss is about.

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Roksan has always done things a little differently. From the Xerxes to the Caspian, the brand’s products have been defined by bold design, strong engineering and hugely entertaining sound. The new Attessa range hopes to capture that Roksan flair across its sonic and visual characteristics – can it succeed?

The Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier (tested at £1499 / $3199 / AU$3499) we have on test here is very much a modern hi-fi product that combines amplification, DAC, streaming, preamplifier and even a phono stage into just one box – you just have to add speakers. 

Streaming amplifiers (or all-in-one just-add-speaker systems, but that’s too much of a mouthful) of this kind have been rising in popularity recently as a lifestyle-friendly alternative to a traditional separates system, and we’ve heard great examples from the likes of Cambridge Audio, NAD, Bluesound, Marantz, Naim and more. It’s a lot of components to cram into one box, but can Roksan make a dent and stand out from the crowd?

Build & design

In looks alone, the Roksan is one of the more stylish one-box streaming amplifiers we’ve come across. The steel and aluminium body is understated, sleek and well made, but it’s the central control dial and minimal OLED display across the unit that gives it visual interest. 

It’s a lovely thing to use, too. The dial controls the unit’s volume, with red bars appearing on the right hand side to show the level. The subtly glowing bars are clear but not blinding in a dark room; overall, it looks striking against the black finish of our review sample. A silver finish is available too.

On the left of the dial you’ll see icons for the input chosen, and you can select the inputs by pushing that main dial and scrolling. The turning action is nicely weighted and smooth, and there is a pleasing haptic feedback when cycling through the various inputs. There are many other hi-fi units that use multi-function-dials, but we think Roksan’s implementation is one of the more elegant designs. 

Even more pleasing is the ability to assign different logos to each input. So instead of just A1 or D1, you can choose pictorial icons of a TV, CD disc, vinyl record or games console to indicate the different sources you’ve connected the Attessa to. It’s a nice touch that makes the Attessa feel more customised to you, giving it a bit of personality otherwise missing from many other hi-fi products of this type. It also means you don’t have to remember which input is connected to which source, making it easier to choose exactly the source you want on the fly.

Some might prefer a large, colourful screen that shows off album artwork – such as in the Cambridge Audio Evo 150 and the Naim Uniti Atom – but we find the Attessa’s minimal display to be a clever alternative that’s informative and sophisticated.

Inside, the Attessa Streaming Amplifier is powered by 80 watts per channel (into 8 ohms) of class A/B amplification, while the tried-and-tested third-party BluOS platform handles all things streaming.

You do need to download Roksan’s own MaestroUnite app to initially set up the Attessa – this is an additional step but it’s worthwhile keeping the app saved as you’ll get firmware updates through here. If you have a full Roksan Attessa system (including the series’ matching CD player, turntable or standalone integrated amplifier), this app will come in handy.

For day-to-day use, however, it’s the BluOS app you’ll need to control all your streaming sources, music playback and more. There are small buttons on the unit itself to control music playback, but we find the included remote control (small but perfectly functional and responsive) and BluOS app the best ways to control the Attessa and your music. 

Features & connectivity

Set-up is swift and painless, even with using two apps – that’s not always a given with streaming products, and the network connection remains blissfully stable and stutter-free throughout our weeks of testing the Attessa. 

You can connect the streaming amp to your home network using wired Ethernet or wi-fi, while the unit also supports AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth. The one gaping omission is Google Chromecast, which may be a deal breaker for non-Apple households who prefer this easy casting method. On the other hand, you get access to a huge number of popular music streaming services and internet radio options through the BluOS app, but the essentials of Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Amazon Music and Deezer are there. 

If you have music stored on NAS devices or laptops, the Roksan Attessa will be able to read these when connected to the same network, although bear in mind that the BluOS platform doesn’t support the easy-access DLNA or UPnP protocols, so you’ll need to input your drive’s file name/path into the app. It’s a little fiddly, but once you’re up and running it’s all plain sailing. We managed to connect both our Naim and Melco drives with no hiccups.

There is a decent spread of physical connections, including two inputs apiece for optical, coaxial and line level RCA. You can directly connect a turntable to the phono MM input, and there is a 3.5mm headphone jack on the front panel. There’s no HDMI input, as we’ve increasingly started to see (and see oft-requested) on such products, but you can add a subwoofer if you need extra oomph for your movies. 

In terms of high-resolution file support, the Attessa’s internal DAC (a Burr Brown chip) can handle files up to 24-bit/192kHz PCM and it can decode MQA files. Those with a large DSD file library will be disappointed to know that it doesn’t support DSD natively, but it can play converted DSD files via the BluOS desktop app only. There are rival just-add-speaker systems – including cheaper models – that have wider file support, so it’s worth thinking carefully about whether the Attessa meets your digital library requirements. As most hi-res files you can download are available within the Rokan’s parameters, however, we think it will suit most but the very dedicated digital music users.

Sound

The Attessa plays nicely with all sources we plug into it during testing. We connect our two NAS drives, our reference Cyrus CDi CD player and Technics SL-1000R turntable, and stream from an iPhone/iPad, and the unit switches between all inputs smoothly. We plug the Roksan into our reference speakers, the ATC SCM50, but also use the more price-appropriate KEF LS50 Meta speakers for the majority of our testing. To try the headphone stage, we use the Beyerdynamic Amiron over-ears.

The Roksan Attessa is a wonderfully genial performer no matter what you play. It has such a likeable sonic personality from the get-go, that we find ourselves happily playing song after song through the unit. There is a decent amount of body and solidity to the sound, ample detail and clarity – all good hallmarks for when you’re listening to a wide variety of music, from John Williams to Yard Act, Taylor Swift to Eminem. 

The Attessa’s greatest strength is that it has a lively sense of agility and rhythm. Eminem’s rapid-fire lyrics on Godzilla (feat. Juice WRLD) are delivered with a level of speed and nimble footing that’s admirable, while the strings and woodwind in Schindler’s List and Catch Me If You Can soundtracks are undulating, fluid and musically cohesive. The Roksan Attessa doesn’t get too hung up on analysing every drop of detail from a track, preferring to prioritise communicating the essence of a song. A sweet midrange and healthy low-level dynamics make voices sound particularly appealing, as we hear with Justin Vernon’s deep, earthy vocals on Exile. It may not be the most transparent piece of hi-fi equipment, but we find ourselves drawn to the Attessa’s pizzazz and energy. 

Dynamically, we wish the Attessa would offer greater contrast and reach when it comes to expressing orchestral sweeps and subtler interplay of instruments. Play Duel Of The Fates from Star Wars Episode 1 or Massive Attack’s Angel, and we yearn for a greater sense of momentum and more expressive large-scale dynamics to fully convey the hair-raising choral arrangements and brooding sense of tension in the respective songs. Simpler piano compositions such as Whist by Chilly Gonzales sound sweet and flowing, but we’d love for the Attessa to eke out subtler textures and deeper resonances so the piano sounds more realistic. There’s a good sense of space and organisation, and nothing sticks out unduly at either side of the frequency range. Compared with rivals at this price level, the Marantz Model 40n will offer a bigger, bolder and more powerful soundstage, but it isn’t quite as engaging or rhythmically adept as the Roksan.

The Roksan’s affable approach works especially well when handling various sources. You do get the expected drop in sound quality when switching from hi-res files to a Bluetooth stream, but the Roksan’s friendly manner and agile footing remain present through all. The phono stage’s performance is decent for its type and retains the same character, although it loses a touch of precision and clarity around the leading edges of notes – as does the headphone stage – but it continues to perform with good-natured zeal and appealing musicality.

Verdict

It may not be an all-rounder but, despite the chinks in its sonic armour, we find the Roksan Attessa streaming amplifier to be very likeable and enjoyable. You can tap your foot along to the music and, if so inclined, sing along to your playlists, which isn’t always the case with products we test. It’s a stylish, well-featured system that is lovely to use, and we find it has a dash of that distinct personality that we have long liked about Roksan’s products. Paired with a good pair of speakers that complements its sonic style, the Attessa streaming amplifier is a modern hi-fi system that is worth considering. 

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Build 5
• Features 4

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Richer Sounds is currently treating its customers to a mini flash sale ahead of the impending Prime Day and, like the deal-hungry hunters that we are, we've picked out a belter just for you. There are quite a few decent deals peppered around the retailer's site, but we think this outstanding Roksan Caspian M2 amplifier bargain is the pick of the bunch.

While it was originally tested at £1659 over a decade ago, the Caspian M2 actually rose in price to hover around the £2000-2200 bracket for the last few years, so this drop to just £999 at Richer Sounds when you have a VIP Club membership (it's free to sign up) is a big deal indeed. 

Best Roksan integrated amplifier deal  

The Roksan Caspian M2 stereo amplifier has outlasted entire generations of rival products, sticking on the market for years and years without ever seeming to go out of fashion. There's good reason for its continued popularity and success, though, as the Caspian M2 continues to impress users new and old with its potent, deeply impressive musical performance. 

Offering two mains transformers – a small 60VA toroidal powering the preamp section and a larger 350VA unit dedicated to the power amp sections – you're not going to be short on punch or performance. As we stated in our original review from 2010, the Roksan blends authority and detail to produce an "immensely capable amplifier that sounds far stronger than a rated output of 85 watts per channel would suggest". From reproducing a huge, well-focused soundstage for big orchestral numbers or showcasing its fluid, flexible rhythmic abilities for chiller pieces, few rivals can match the breadth of its sonic talents.

Connections-wise, the Roksan offers six analogue RCA inputs as well as dual audio outputs, a pre output and an XLR input. It's still a beautifully made unit to behold, too, and while the provided remote just looks a little naff, the main unit is smart, sleek and distinctive when daubed in a classy silver finish. 

An old dog that still knows most of the new tricks, the formerly Award-winning Roksan Caspian M2 is a gorgeous stereo amplifier at a great deal price over at Richer Sounds.

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Read our original Roksan Caspian M2 integrated amplifier review 

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This week: celebrating Home Cinema Week on What Hi-Fi?

REVIEWS THIS ISSUE IN SOUND+IMAGE

LEICA CINE 1 - 100 Cinema TV
The maker of luxury compact cameras uses its expertise in glass and lenses to deliver a higher level of all-in-one projector-TV-sound system.

HISENSE 65U8KAU Mini LED TV
The ‘Mini LED Pro’ 65-inch U8K shows Hisense moving from its traditional value niche into full performance that challenges all comers.

YAMAHA SR-B40A soundbar system
Yamaha says its latest soundbar combo fully immerses you in a sonic globe — a big claim for any soundbar system. Might they be exaggerating? 

SONUS FABER DUETTOS streaming stereo speakers
Italian-designed speakers with built-in amplifiers, streaming and external inputs including HDMI. Presto! — a thrilling complete hi-fi and TV system.  

ROKSAN ATTESSA streaming amplifier 
UK marque Roksan delivers a stylish exterior for a solid Class-AB amplifier enhanced by full BluOS streaming. Compulsory ‘red light’ joke included.

BARGAIN TURNTABLES!
From just $288 up to $1999, meet our pick of the hottest turntables at the most affordable prices. If you’re hankering to get back to the black stuff, or a total vinyl newbie, here’s how to spin for less.
- How to choose a turntable 
- Sony PS-LX310BT 
- Pro-Ject Primary E 
- JBL Spinner BT 
- Lenco LBT-225  
- Rega Planar 1 Plus  
- Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Evo  
- Cambridge Alva ST  
- JBL TT350 Classic  
- And there’s more... 

FEATURES & REGULARS

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WE’ll THROW AWAY 86% OF YOUR MUSIC, OK? 
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Wilson Audio updates its amazing multichannel speakers, Arcam goes yellow (or orange), Yamaha’s CD multichanger, Electrocompaniet power...

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It’s Vegas, it’s January, it’s CES 2024! – new TVs, $1.4m speakers, etc... 

FRAUNHOFER & LC3: the big interview
Exclusive exposé with the engineers behind the new Bluetooth codecs. It’s long — but you won’t believe what they say about high-res audio. 

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THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY: 25 years on 
The Farrelly brothers reflect on the hits and misses of a box-office smash that smuggled a lot of heart in amid the filth, fluids, and Cameron Diaz.

THE BIG PICTURE: Stand By Me 
How that classic bridge scene was created, tears and all...

Album reviews 
New music from Gabriel, Bernie Marsden, The Pink Fairies and Steve Howe, plus classic re-releases from Mott, Lizzy — and Brinsley Schwarz.

Classic Track: American Idiot 
Green Day’s original ‘resurrection’ track is now 20 years old!

It’s all in Sound+Image #354 for November-December 2023. The magazine is available in newsagents now, and digitally through multiple platforms, including Readly, where you can peruse Sound+Image and thousands more Aussie and international magazines with a 1-month free trial, then AU$9.99p/m.

Roksan’s Attessa streaming amplifier is the company’s first integrated amp to feature a DAC with a network/streaming capability and is said to be a completely ‘in-house’ design. It’s also able to be operated from your phone (or device) using an app called MaestroUnite, which not only allows remote control of the Attessa’s many built-in features – including input configuration, headphone socket output voltage, analogue input gain, channel balance, and low-power standby mode – but also allows you to link to other Roksan components, such as its companion Attessa CD transport, as well as access additional options such as firmware updates when they become available.

Roksan also makes the Attessa available as a standard integrated amplifier (sans the streaming capability), plus there’s also an Attessa turntable available. It’s a pretty comprehensive range.

Build & design

As you can see for yourself, the Attessa is a great-looking component, with an ultra-modern design aesthetic. This is not surprising, because Roksan has long been renowned for its designs, most of which were created by industrial designer John Cornock, who was behind the look of the Radius turntable, the DP1 CD transport and the range of ROK amplifiers. This Attessa amplifier was actually designed in-house by Monitor Audio Group R&D, led by its Product Design Director, Charles Minett, alongside Electronics Design Director Jon Green (who incidentally has had a large hand in most Naim electronics over the last decade). The Attessa has its otherwise rectangular chassis cut away at a 45-degree angle on both sides at the bottom, and a single rotary control at the centre of the front panel that, visually, seems to be the body of a bird with slim black ‘wings’ extending either side.

After the Attessa is powered up, the ‘wing’ on the right side of the rotary control becomes sliced with twenty vertically-orientated orange-coloured OLEDs that give an indication of volume level, whilst on the left, the ‘wing’ has icons that illuminate to indicate input source selection, Bluetooth status and BluOS status.

The BluOS OLED icon is a veritable ‘Christmas Tree’ of status indicators! If it’s solid green, the Attessa is in ‘Hotspot’ mode and ready to be connected to a network. If, on the other hand, it’s flashing green, the player is attempting to connect wirelessly to a network or the network cable is disconnected. If the icon is solid blue, the Attessa is connected to your network and ready to stream music. And if the icon is blue, but flickering, the Attessa is in the process of receiving infrared signals from the remote (about which more later). If, on the other hand, the icon is blue but blinking, this means that the Attessa’s output is muted.

A solid white icon indicates that the Attessa is in the process of indexing the local music library on your network, though if it’s alternating between white and blue, it’s replicating or receiving an updated Index from another BluOS device on your network. A solid red icon indicates that the Attessa is waiting to perform an upgrade, while an alternating red/green icon means that the Attessa is in the middle of automatically upgrading its BluOS firmware. Lastly, a solid purple icon indicates the Attessa has timed out after 15 minutes in ‘Hotspot’ mode and so is not yet set up. Phew.

Features

As you should have gathered from the previous paragraph, the Attessa’s streaming capability is enabled by a BluOS streaming module, so you’re getting proven technology. BluOS was originally developed more than a decade ago by Canadian company Lenbrook (which owns NAD, Bluesound and PSB Loudspeakers). In addition to using BluOS in its own brands’ streaming components, the company is now licensing it for use by other hi-fi manufacturers including Dali, Cyrus and Peachtree. BluOS is an operating system/music management system that allows you to access and stream lossless music up to 24-bit/192kHz via your home network. It is compatible with MacOS, Windows, Android and iOS and integrates seamlessly with most streaming services – Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer and Amazon HD. It also supports Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect for those who prefer to control playback directly from those services’ own apps.

As for the BluOS module itself, Bluesound provides two different pre-built modules (NPM-2i and NBM-3i) that enable licensees such as Roksan to easily and cost-effectively integrate the platform into their designs. The module used in the Attessa is the NPM-2i, which has a 1GHz ARM Cortex A9 processor. The primary differences between the two modules are that the NBM-3i has the higher-specced processor necessary to run Roon and features built-in wi-fi, whereas the NPM-2i requires an external USB ‘dongle’ in order to connect via wi-fi. This dongle is supplied as a standard accessory with the Attessa. Both modules support Apple AirPlay 2.

To the far left of the ‘wing’ is a group of three physical buttons that can be used for play/standby, next/previous track access in the event that it’s easier to do this via the front panel than via the infrared remote or your device, plus at the extreme left is a physical power standby button. The Attessa has both a ‘standard’ standby mode and a ‘Standby Plus’ mode. The latter enables the MaestroUnite app to turn the Attessa on from standby and share its status while in standby, as well as allow auto-signal sensing switch-on for the A2 input. It also enables the Attessa to be BluOS visible on the network and wakeable from standby by BluOS.

The only penalty for all of this flexibility is that the ‘Standby Plus’ mode consumes more power than the regular one. You can toggle between the two standby modes by pressing the play/pause button on the remote or via the MaestroUnite app. By default, the Attessa will automatically go into whatever standby mode you have selected if there has been no audio signal received for 20 minutes. You can, however, switch this ‘Auto Standby’ feature off, which will force the Attessa to remain on permanently.

At the far right of the right-most ‘wing’ is a 3.5mm headphone socket. We are not great fans of these, because the design is a compromise that was thought to be necessary in order to fit headphone sockets to portable devices. We would have preferred a full-sized 6.35mm headphone socket. No doubt Cornock had his reasons. The output voltage of this socket is variable between ‘Low’, ‘Mid’ and ‘High’ to help compensate for the different efficiencies of differently designed earphones and headphones.

Roksan suggests you use ‘Low’ for earbud designs and either ‘Mid’ or ‘High’ for over-ear headphones. The intention of the circuit is to help provide the same volume level when using the headphones as you hear when listening via your loudspeakers. Amplifier gain is reduced automatically whenever headphones are connected, and restored automatically whenever headphones are removed. Sensitivity is adjusted by pressing the play/pause button on the infrared remote or via the MaestroUnite app.

The central rotary control’s main function is to control volume, including to instantly mute the output (a quick press), but it can also be used to select the signal source, which is achieved by pressing it inwards and then rotating clockwise or anticlockwise. There are no ‘indents’ as such to indicate when a specific source is selected; instead you get what Roksan calls ‘haptic feedback’: a type of vibration. It’s very high-tech! Of course, you can also select input source via the remote that is supplied (not an optional extra, as with some manufacturers!) or via the app. Our remote was supplied with some very ordinary non-leak-proof batteries. We would suggest you ditch these and replace them with high-quality leak-proof Lithium batteries instead.

Analogue input one (A1) is the default input whenever the unit is powered up from ‘off’, otherwise the amplifier will default to whatever input you were using prior to it going into standby mode. There are two line-level analogue inputs (A1, A2), a phono input, four digital inputs (D1/CD, D2, D3, and D4), Bluetooth, and BluOS. In BluOS mode, you have an additional three preset options so that you can quickly access your preferred online music services. The A2 input can be reconfigured as an AV input that bypasses the volume control should you wish to use the Attessa in a multi-channel system. If you set A2 for this mode, the three vertical OLED bars closest to the headphone socket in the volume level display will illuminate whenever A2 is selected.

The sensitivity of the three analogue inputs can be adjusted between ‘Low’, ‘Mid’, and ‘High’. For the two line-level inputs, Roksan suggests using the ‘Low’ setting when the component you’re connecting has a nominal output voltage of around 3 volts, ‘Mid’ when it’s around 1.5V, and ‘High’ when it’s around 750mV. The factory default setting is ‘Low’. We would have preferred that the default level be ‘Mid’, but of course you can easily change the default yourself.

The phono stage also has three sensitivity adjustments, but they’re all for moving-magnet cartridges, and the load is set for this cartridge type (47kΩ/56pF). For phono, the default gain setting is ‘Mid’ which Roksan says is the best setting for phono cartridges with a maximum output voltage of around 6mV, such as its own Roksan Corus 2 or Dana cartridges. The ‘Low’ setting is intended for use with cartridges that have a maximum output level of around 12mV, while ‘High’ is for those with a maximum output of 3mV. Again, you can change these settings by pressing the play/pause button on the remote or with the app.

The rear panel of the Attessa shows that two of the digital inputs are wired accessed via RCA terminals while two are optical and so accessed via Toslink connectors (full marks to Roksan for using sockets with protective covers). The wired inputs can accommodate PCM files up to 24-bit/192kHz; the optical types up to 24-bit/96kHz. All of the usual digital formats are catered for. 

There are also two USB inputs. One is for use with the aforementioned wi-fi dongle; the other can be used to connect a USB stick with music files, or an external HDD or SSD. In both cases, you can only access the music on the drive via
the BluOS app.

The three analogue inputs are all accessed via gold-plated RCA terminal pairs. The fourth RCA terminal pair is a preamplifier output, should you wish to use a more powerful power amplifier in conjunction with the Attessa. If you don’t use the pre-outs for this purpose, you could connect a powered subwoofer.

Below the analogue inputs you can see that although the Attessa was designed and engineered in the UK, it is built in China.

The speaker terminals are not only very closely spaced, but three of them are also very close to the edge of the chassis cover, which protrudes over the rear panel. This all makes it a bit difficult to connect speaker wires, so we would suggest you remove the small plastic inserts in the centre of these terminals and use banana plugs rather than bare wires, spades or pins. The speaker terminals are on standard 19mm centres, so you could use dual Pomona plugs, as opposed to banana plugs, to make things even easier.

If you decide not to use banana plugs or dual Pomona plugs, be very careful when connecting wires, because we found it so difficult that we accidentally short-circuited the outputs when doing this (we know, we know... we shouldn’t have been doing it with the amplifier switched on!) We rather expected that the Attessa’s built-in over-current output stage protection would cut in when this happened, but there were no symbols on the front panel to indicate this had happened (a loudspeaker icon alongside an icon with an exclamation mark inside a triangle) – just a non-functioning output stage.

It turned out that an internal 6.3A slow-blow fuse had gone open-circuit to protect the output transistors. In the process of fixing this, we found that the Attessa has a conventional Class AB output stage, with two pairs of output transistors per channel. Rather unusually, these transistors are not identified in any way, either on the devices themselves or on the PCB, so you’d have no way of knowing what to replace them with in the event they failed instead of their protective fuses.

The Attessa also has in-built protection against over-temperature events, which Roksan says can occur “where the amp has got too hot due to being played for long periods of time and/or at high levels. Additionally, this can also happen if something has covered it to stop the air escaping from the unit.” If the amplifier does overheat, the amplifier will mute itself for 15 minutes, after which you will have to press the standby button to reset the circuit. There’s also protection in the event that your mains voltage is too high (above 240 volts) or too low (below 210 volts). For either of these error events, Roksan suggests you should “remove the power from the unit and try again later”.

Sound

In the event you didn’t know that Roksan was owned by Monitor Audio, you would find out as soon as you download the MaestroUnite app, as it carries Monitor Audio branding. This excellent app partners with Roksan’s other components, connects to your wi-fi network, and allows you to integrate the Attessa amplifier with the Attessa CD transport so that they appear to operate as a single unit. It also allows you to configure the multiplicity of in-built features we have mentioned so far (as well as many others), such as channel balance, switching out the provided icons for different ones, and checking for firmware updates.

We would recommend using the app to control the Attessa if you’re playing music from an external drive, from a source on your home network, or from an online music service. If, however, you’re old-school and primarily playing from your own CD player, or the Attessa transport, we'd suggest that using the infrared remote makes more sense. However, if you are old-school and not using the Attessa’s streaming facilities, we might be wondering why you purchased this bells-and-whistles streaming amplifier and not the non-streaming Attessa integrated instead!

Our listening sessions proved the Roksan Attessa to be a powerful, quiet amplifier with an extremely neutral sound and an obviously extended frequency response, particularly in the low frequencies. It was also capable of extracting the best performance from the various different loudspeakers we use when evaluating amplifiers, from my large four-driver, three-way floorstanders through to a pair of three-driver, three-way standmounts, all the way to a pair of two-driver, two-way bookshelves.

When used with large floorstanders, the Roksan Attessa delivered all the heft and power we could want, while at the same time exerting total control over the speakers, so that the bass was not only loud but also taut. It was also tonally precise, so there was never any doubt about the instrument producing the sound, or the pitch of the note being produced. Listening to ‘Donny Hathaway (Live)’, which features the insanely great bass playing of Willie Weeks (Doobie Brothers, David Lee Roth and a veritable host of others), was an absolute joy with the Attessa. Despite being recorded live (some tracks at The Troubadour in Hollywood and some at The Bitter End in Greenwich Village), the sound of Weeks’ 1962 Fender Precision is captured to perfection and was delivered at this same level by the Roksan Attessa. Weeks’ solo on Voices Inside is so well constructed that it’s often held up as one of the most perfect examples of its type. (George Harrison once dismissed the possibility of a Beatles reunion by saying he would “rather have Willie Weeks on bass than Paul McCartney.”)

The Attessa delivered not only the sound of Weeks’ bass perfectly, but also that of the instruments played by the other performers on the album. Listen to the differences between Cornell Dupree and Phil Upchurch’s respective guitars (as well as to the differences in talent), for example. Listen also to Hathaway’s velvety-rich voice and his keyboard playing – both beautifully rendered by the Attessa. Thanks to this recording’s age (1972) and the fact it was recorded live, you’re hearing unadulterated sound, and it’s a great tester for hi-fi components. If you like soul, it’s an album that should also be in your music library. Rolling Stone once rated it one of the “greatest live albums of all time”, while MusicRadar lists it as one of its 10 “essential bass albums”.

There’s also plenty of amp-testing and speaker-testing bass on Foo Fighters’ latest: ‘But Here We Are’. Listening to Grohl’s frenetic – but precise – drumming on Rescue (and throughout), we couldn’t help but think it would be great if he could clone himself so that when the band was playing live, we could have one Dave Grohl on drums and the other out front singing lead. (Impossible, I know, you could never have another Dave Grohl!) This is the first Foo Fighters album since the death of Taylor Hawkins and it’s an absolutely fantastic listen; one that, we hate to say (given Hawkins’ absence), is the best FF has delivered for some time. There are more polished songs, both musically and lyrically, and even though there’s still that wall of guitars, the many music shape-shifts (the echo on the opening to Hearing Voices being one example) point to a more nuanced musical direction.

There is also lots of great bass on Ellie Goulding’s album ‘Higher Than Heaven’, but we used it as a test of the Attessa’s midrange and highs, plus its dynamic capabilities. The Attessa delivered her breathy, slightly nasal voice to perfection, along with the backing vocals. The cymbal taps in Cure For Love are crisp, with ride but no overhang. Fantastic. The swirling synth sounds are completely enveloping, as they should be. And then there’s the total lack of background noise. This is one very quiet amplifier.

We loved the way the Attessa was able to reveal the real instruments on Like A Saviour so instantaneously, which is no mean feat given the realism of modern synthesiser sounds. We would have liked to offer you a comparison between vinyl and CD for this album, but we weren't prepared to pay the $68 being asked for the former. Sorry.

But since we’ve mentioned vinyl, we need to tell you that when spinning our own (already paid-for) vinyl, the Attessa’s moving-magnet phono stage proved to be very nice indeed. It’s quiet, has a good overload margin, and its frequency response is as linear as that of the line-level inputs, which we established by A/B-ing our vinyl version of Billy Joel’s album ‘The Stranger’ against our CD version. Playing vinyl, the bass on Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song) was powerful and extended. The cymbals hissed crisply, and when they were cut off, the cut-off was sharp – no overhang at all. The piano sound on the introduction to the title track was authentic and the whistling that follows was rendered just right too, without any sibilant edges. The piano chords on the intro to She’s Always A Woman were tonally accurate, and then when they’re arpeggiated later in the track, the balance between the individual notes was nothing short of exact.

Verdict

We like the look, we love all of the features, and we are entranced by the sound. We are impressed too by the retail price. Put that all together and we can tell you that the Roksan Attessa represents real value for money.

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Established hi-fi brand Roksan is offering two of its finest models for some of the lowest prices we have seen in a long while. The superb, formerly Award-winning Roksan Caspian M2 integrated amplifier is heavily discounted at Richer Sounds and AV.com, whereas the (also formerly Award-winning) Roksan Caspian M2 CD player has seen its current price cut by more than half as part of a VIP deal over at Richer Sounds. Talk about early Black Friday steals.

The M2 integrated amplifier has fallen to £1649 (for the silver finish at AV.com), while the Caspian M2 CD player has plummeted to just £1149 over at Richer Sounds - that's more than half off the current retail price of £2325. All you need to do to pounce on the latter bargain is sign in to your Richer Sounds VIP account (or sign up for free) to take advantage of this astonishingly great deal. 

Both Caspian M2 products were originally reviewed at £1650 more than a decade ago – but that price has inevitably risen in the intervening years. You will normally find them around the £2000 mark (or higher) at retailers that still stock them.

It may be more than a decade old, but the Caspian M2 CD player is a multiple What Hi-Fi? Award winner, and remains a stellar premium choice for getting the most out of your disc collection. We can't see anyone getting close to this huge Richer Sounds discount, so it's probably best not to wait around for it to be bettered.

Roksan has made some excellent hi-fi products over the years, with its Caspian range one of its highlights. Both products are well over a decade old now, but this is a prime example of really great hi-fi products' enduring appeal, and how it's always worth checking out older products when hunting for deals. 

So, why should you be interested in either the Caspian M2 CD or the Caspian M2 integrated amplifier? Well, both are former What Hi-FI? Award winners, with the M2 CD combining refinement, bite and rhythmic ability with pleasing sonic composure and a reliable, top-notch build. It's a clever, well-made and sonically gifted platform for your CDs – you couldn't ask for much more for the premium price. We called it the "finest CD player available at anywhere near this price" in our review, as well as noting that "this Roksan has an immensely solid, well-damped feel that suggests it will be working for years to come." 

The M2 integrated amplifier, meanwhile, remains one of those amps that we still talk about fondly. In our review, we said it was "an exceptional amplifier for the money. It’s a big-hearted performer capable of drama and subtlety." The M2 is equipped with an independent analogue-output-stage power supply, an independent preamplifier-stage power supply and fan-powered heat-sink cooling that means it can be driven harder than before. Five line-level inputs (plus tape input and output) and a switchable balanced XLR input pair are also available. Its 85W per channel output (into 8 ohms) doesn't convey just how big and powerful it sounds, with high levels of transparency and large-scale dynamic swings delivered with ease. This is an amp that's immensely capable and sounds fantastic, even all these years on.

As Black Friday gets into full swing and we plough further into the cold, dark recesses of November, these great deals on the iconic Roksan Caspian products could be just the bright spark you (and your hi-fi system) need.

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Here's proof that it's not just shiny new products that you should be looking out for during the early Black Friday sales that have already started. Roksan's five-star K3 integrated amplifier now has a whopping great £500 off its RRP at Richer Sounds, if you sign up for the retailer's VIP membership.

Roksan's K3 and Caspian M2 products have been a huge hit with What Hi-Fi? over the years, and this K3 integrated amp (not to be confused with the K3 power amp) was first reviewed back in 2015 but can still hold its own with newer models. Now available for a superb lowest-ever price of £899 at RIcher Sounds, surely it's destined for a new home in someone's hi-fi system.

If you're on the lookout for a premium amp that packs a big punch, this £500 saving could be the ideal bargain you've been hunting for. But wait – isn't this deal only for VIP members? That's right, but there's no catch here – becoming a VIP customer is completely free and all you have to do is sign up on the Richer Sounds website.

The Roksan K3 integrated amplifier boasts 140W of Class A/B amplification into 8 ohms, and you can really feel it. The amplifier delivers a sound that's big, expressive, energetic and agile – you'll never have a dull moment with this beast plugged into your system. 

It's built like a tank and looks rather elegant too, and there are generous connections on board. This is an all-analogue affair and the K3 has five line-level inputs, including a built-in moving magnet phono stage for plugging in your favourite turntable. A 3.5mm headphone jack is available for late night listening and it also has aptX Bluetooth. Well, the model we tested back in 2015 did, but things have changed over the last eight years. A note from the manufacturer states: "All K3 products manufactured from September 2021 will be without Bluetooth." The Bluetooth button can be reconfigured to another input and Roksan urges you to check with the retailer to double-check if this is the case with the model on sale before buying.

Still, Bluetooth might not be the biggest draw for a stereo amplifier of Roksan's pedigree, and it's the K3 amp's sound quality that takes centre stage. A large, wide soundstage; punchy, controlled basslines; texture and depth to detail – the K3 dishes out all this performance with an energetic nature that aims to be as fun as it is competent. We said in our five-star review: "The wide soundstage allows instruments and vocals plenty of space to breathe, and detail retrieval is excellent as well. Dynamically it’s superb too. This might be a powerhouse of an amp, but it also knows how to convey the softer, more fragile moments in music."

There isn't a shortage of good stereo amplifiers at this price (check out the Cambridge Audio CXA81 for an alternative option with digital connections), but we're still fond of this Roksan K3 amp and this massive £500 discount is worth giving serious consideration to.

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Streaming amplifiers. Network amplifiers. Just-add-speaker systems. Whatever you prefer to call them, these one-box-streamer-and-amplifier components are one of the hottest trends in hi-fi now, with many of the established electronics brands having produced at least one over the past few years – Arcam, Cambridge Audio, Marantz, Naim and Technics, to name just a handful.

Their appeal is plain to see: why have two boxes of electronics – a standalone network streamer and standalone stereo amplifier – when you can have both functionalities in one? The only neater hi-fi system solution than having one box connected to a pair of speakers is an all-in-one speaker system whereby all the electronics are crammed into the speaker cabinets themselves. 

Separates (i.e. multi-box) systems have their advantages over these more convenient two-in-one solutions (which we’ll get to later) in the pursuit of building the perfect hi-fi system, and that’s why their continuing existence is more than justified. But streaming amplifiers are getting better and better each year, and are understandably tempting for someone who values simplicity and neatness. So if you’re thinking about buying one, consider these pros and cons first...

Streaming Amp Pros

Ultra convenient

Streaming amplifiers aren’t just convenient because they reduce system component count and take up less space than two boxes would. They also require fewer audio cables than a separates alternative. You can often connect all kinds of sources to a streaming amplifier – a turntable or CD player, for example – but thanks to their built-in access to streaming services, all you need to connect to a streaming amplifier is a pair of hi-fi speakers. And so all you need is one pair of speaker cables; not that interconnect between a streamer and an amplifier, not that second power cable that would require a second plug socket. 

Also falling under this convenience umbrella is the need for just one remote, as opposed to potentially two (especially if the brands of a separate streamer and amplifier are different).

Negates (some) system matching

Choose a separate streamer and amplifier and you have to make sure they work together. Technically speaking they always will, but sonically the two components’ characters might not hit it off. Such system-matching considerations can make or break a system, so you don’t want to get it wrong. You don’t have to worry about such sonic synergy with streaming amplifiers, however, as the manufacturer has done that for you. The best streaming amplifiers feature components, from streaming chips to amplifier modules to power supplies, picked and implemented to work together optimally.

That said, you will still need to consider what speakers will work with your streaming amplifier. Generally, connecting kit with the same kind of sonic character together is usually a recipe for disaster, so it’s better to pair, say, a bright-sounding streaming amplifier with warmish speakers to get a more 'liveable-with' sonic balance. 

Hi-fi sound

The best streaming amplifiers nowadays sound really quite good. There will always be a sonic compromise to many electronics internals sharing a compact space (we’ll get to that later), but generally the standard has really improved in the last couple of years, to the point that they can be at the heart of a formidable hi-fi system, with this awesome just-add-speakers streaming system being just one example worthy of highlighting.

We have awarded many streaming amplifiers five-star reviews, such as the Naim Uniti Atom, Technics SA-C600 and Cambridge Audio Evo 75 (pictured top), for their solid performances. That said...

Streaming Amp Cons

Comparatively compromised sound

Compared to the best standalone streamer and best standalone amplifier pairing you can buy for a combined price, the best streaming amplifier around that same price won’t match it for overall sound quality. Firstly, not all companies are as good at developing the streamer side as they are the amplification side, so there’s logic in two different components being better when made by two specialist companies in those respective fields. (You can read the pros and cons of building a single-brand hi-fi system here.) And secondly, as we mentioned above, sonic sacrifices are inevitable when components and circuitry for various applications share space inside a compact box with limited opportunity for isolation.

A decent streaming amplifier may well sound better than two average components connected together, but ultimately if you want the most sound quality possible for a particular budget, you're almost certainly better off going down the separates route.

Limited upgradability

The best thing about a separates system is that you can upgrade one component at a time, giving you the chance to tweak and improve bit by bit. The more boxes you have, the more control over your system (and its future) you have. So when two functions are combined in one box, as they are in streaming amplifiers, you have to replace both when the time comes to upgrade. Unless you, say, use the streaming amplifier’s streamer and preamp sections but connect it to a superior power amplifier in order to upgrade the amplification. But that’s not the most efficient way to system build, and that way you’re compromising the convenience you wanted in the first place.

So, should you buy a streaming amplifier?

So, is a streaming amplifier the best path for you to take? If you value neatness and convenience over outright sound quality and aren't overly concerned about a future upgrade path, a network amp is a hugely attractive option. We at What Hi-Fi? have tested many from the market's biggest players, and the appeal of having fewer cables, less rack space and a sonically matched, single-control integration is, in the best examples of the breed, as useful in practice as it is on paper.

Just note that you'll get the very best performance per pound (or dollar) if you go the separates route, which will also allow for easier step-by-step upgrades down the line. It's your call, and we hope you will now be in a better position to make it. If you've made your decision, check out either our best hi-fi systems buying guide for the best-performing streaming amplifiers, or our best stereo amplifiers and music streamers buying guides.

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You can pick up the excellent Roksan K3 CD Di or the Roksan K3 Power Amp at half price thanks to a new bundle deal on Richer Sounds.

The discount is running right now and lets you pick up either item at half price when you buy a Roksan K3 integrated amplifier. 

The offer is open to all Richer Sounds VIP Club members. To activate it, all you have to do is add the stereo amplifier to your basket and enter the voucher code “VIPROKSK3” when prompted.

If you’re not a member we also have some good news - registering to become a VIP is free! All you have to do is jump onto Richer Sounds’ site and hit the register button.

We’d thoroughly recommend the deal to anyone looking to spruce up their hi-fi setup, with two of the three products earning perfect 5/5 scores when we got them in for review.

The Roksan K3 integrated amp seriously impressed our testers. There's 150W of power into eight ohms, with analogue inputs and a built-in moving-magnet phono stage rubbing shoulders with aptX Bluetooth streaming. It delivers a big, expressive sound, with punchy but agile bass and oodles of detail.

This led our expert testers to conclude:

“Roksan is back on its A-game with the K3, which is nothing short of a superb amp for the price. For a fun, lively amp that can’t fail to keep you entertained, the Roksan K3 is one to consider.”

The Roksan K3 CD Di was equally impressive with it not only looking gorgeous but also delivering a large, confident soundscape and generally being rhythmically superb during all of our listening room tests. It can also operate as a DAC, with digital connections (optical and coax) that can handle up to 24-bit/192kHz files. As we noted in our Roksan K3 CD Di review:

“There are plenty of players at this price offering sound-per-pound scale and detail, but few are so musical. Roksan has again designed a product promoting the character of what it’s playing, regardless of how subtle or opaque that character may be, and that’s why you’ll never tire of listening to it.”

This is why we’re 100 per cent happy recommending this deal to our readers, even though the amp is beginning to show its age, having launched all the way back in 2015.

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Roksan has lifted the lid on a brand-new entry-level hi-fi range to sit beneath its blak series of components. Designed and developed in the UK, Attessa comprises a turntable, CD transport, stereo amplifier and streaming amplifier.

First of all, the Attessa Turntable (£995, AU$1999) is an all-in-one plug 'n' play design, featuring a Unipivot tonearm with a glass jewel pivot for low effective weight, attached to a Dana moving magnet cartridge fitted as standard. A phono stage is built-in, meaning the deck can be connected directly to an amp's line-level input, while electronic speed control is also on the menu.

The Attessa Turntable's design includes a weighted glass platter and aluminium edge dampener, plus isolation feet and a chassis design inspired by the company's higher-ranging Xerxes.

The Attessa Amplifier (£995, AU$1999), meanwhile, is a 130 watts-per-channel stereo amp with digital coaxial and optical connections (fed by a DAC developed in-house), plus RCA line-level and moving magnet phono inputs and Bluetooth.

The Attessa Streaming Amplifier (£1495, AU$2999) is similar but adds the BluOS wireless multi-room platform that also sits at the heart of several Bluesound, NAD and Dali streaming products. Bluetooth and AirPlay 2 are onboard too, and complementing its streaming savviness are various digital and analogue connections, including a moving magnet phono stage. The coaxial SPDIF inputs will decode MQA-encoded PCM streams, including MQA CD’s played back by the all-new Attessa CD Transport. Speaking of which...

The Attessa CD Transport (£495, AU$999) has been designed to be the perfect partner for the Attessa Amplifiers. As well as MQA CD support, playback can be controlled from the BluOS app when connected to the Attessa Streaming Amplifier. 

The Roksan Attessa range will be available in black and white finishes when it arrives in stores from September.

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See our Roksan reviews

Lenbrook International – the owner of Bluesound, NAD, PSB Speakers and high-resolution multi-room streaming platform BluOS – has announced a new hi-fi internet radio station exclusively for BluOS products.

The new service, launched in association with MQA, will see Radio Paradise, a listener-supported internet radio station, providing MQA-encoded audio on all four of its mix channels, utilizing high-resolution 24-bit masters where available. The collaboration marks the first time an internet radio station will carry MQA content. MQA technology notably powers hi-res Tidal Masters on Tidal, while hi-res MQA hard files are also available to download.

All BluOS devices will receive an update in April 2021 to enable Radio Paradise MQA as a native music streaming option. It will also be included as standard on all future BluOS-based devices from hi-fi brands like Bluesound, NAD Electronics, DALI Loudspeakers, Monitor Audio, Roksan, Peachtree and PSB Speakers. 

Radio Paradise first began streaming its main internet channel in 2000 and offers eclectic DJ-mixed music focusing on high-quality audio. Three additional mixes – mellow, world and rock – have recently been added to its service, too.

Speaking about the collaboration, Bill Goldsmith, founder of Radio Paradise, said: ”As music lovers and audiophiles ourselves, it was a revelation to hear the performance difference in music when encoded into MQA, even when only 16 bit/44 kHz masters are available. 

“The team at BluOS has been 100% committed to delivering high-res audio direct to the listening room and has long supported our work at Radio Paradise. Our shared values for best-in-class audio make this collaboration a totally natural evolution.”

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Steve Sells is Naim Audio’s electronic design director. He’s responsible for the development of the company’s range of highly-rated electronics, from those used in wireless speakers such as the Mu-so all the way through to the £170,000 Statement pre/power combination. We visited the company’s Salisbury offices to find out more about how the design process works and the man behind the sound.

What Hi-Fi?: What made you interested in hi-fi?

Steve Sells: I must have been about seven years old when my grandfather bought a Quadraphonic hi-fi. I remember him listening to a recording of the Philharmonic Orchestra at full volume and talking about being transported to the Albert Hall (where the recording was made). That’s when I realised that hi-fi could have such a connection with people. I was told not to touch the hi-fi because it was expensive, so I grew up with a sort of reverence to it.

At around 11 years old I was given a big loudspeaker. I took it apart and couldn’t believe how simple it was, so I decided to have a go at making one myself. I went to the garden shed, found a nail, some wire, a magnet and a Cornflakes box and taped it all together. Once it was finished I plugged it into my clock radio to test it. For the next few weeks, I made speaker after speaker.

WHF: Did the speakers work?

SS: They gave an output! Sounded absolutely atrocious, though.

WHF: What happened next?

SS: At around 14 or 15 I started making amplifiers. I was fortunate to live in a town with an electronics components supplier. His name was J.R. Hartley (yes, really) and he used to do mail order electronics. I bought loads of bits and built loads of things. He was an inspirational guy for me.

When I was about 16 years old my brother got into hi-fi. He bought a system made up of a Dual CS-505 turntable, Rotel RA-820B amplifier (the one without tone controls) and KEF Coda speakers. I could not believe this thing. It went louder and sounded more realistic than anything else I had heard to that point. That was it. That was the point in my life when I decided I wanted to design hi-fi.

WHF: What was your first job in hi-fi?

SS: In my gap year at university I got a job at Cambridge Audio. It was the time of the CD1, a big multi-box CD player that had an error counter. I learnt a lot about designing products and getting them into production. I’d be building prototypes and designing circuit boards. My final year project was making a digital-to-analogue converter. I used multiple Philips TDA-1541 DACs - I think I had four of them - and a Philips 7220 digital filter, and it did 16x oversampling.

WHF: What's your favourite product you've designed?

SS: Naim Statement pre/power amp – I had waited all my working life to design something like this. As an audio designer you grow up wanting to make a 'no compromise' amp. Over time I had worked for Cambridge Audio, NAD, Cyrus, Roksan and Quad, and never really had the chance to design something like this. It’s only when I started at Naim that there was really a chance to do it.

WHF: Was the Statement a clean sheet design?

SS: It was almost too clean. When you have constraints it focuses you. When someone says it doesn’t matter how much it costs, what it looks like or how long it takes, you start to ask yourself fundamental questions about amplifier design and electronic circuitry. Those questions took a long time to get over. After a while the thing starts to take shape, and in the case of the Statement that comes from the engineering - the cooling requirements, two boxes to isolate the power supplies, the zero feedback to get the sonic speed. All these things end up dictating the final design.

WHF: What qualities make Naim products different?

SS: I think it’s the musicality. It’s something where you drift off into the performance. You listen to some products and you get that precise imaging and lots of detail, and that can be quite enticing. But I think for the long-term appeal of a component it needs to convey the emotion. That’s the main thing we listen for.

WHF: Measurement or listening?

SS: As an engineer it’s really hard to sacrifice specs, but we do it all the time. Generally, we’ll design on the bench from experience. We know what sounded good in the past so we’ll try those things again. Then when we’ve got a couple of different prototypes we’ll engineer those till they measure well. Then we go to the listening room and we play around with components to fine-tune the sound. Invariably, when you go back and measure things they’ve got worse.

WHF: Do you think Class D circuitry works for high-end products?

SS: I don’t think you’ll see a high-end Naim product using Class D technology for a very long time, unless changes in legislation forces us to do it. Class D delivers pretty much everything of what most people want in most applications. I really like the power, and it’s great for keeping it lightweight and efficient. You don’t need such big power supplies and heatsinks, so it’s possible to make really compact designs. But its benefits carry less weight when it comes to high-end products where performance is all.

WHF: What's your favourite non-Naim product?

SS: The next bit of hi-fi I want to buy is a Revox A77 reel-to-reel tape player. I’m renovating one for a friend and now I really want one. I love tape decks. Tape is fantastic. Naim did toy with making a tape deck years ago. It was before my time so I haven’t seen the prototypes.

WHF: What kind of music do you listen to?

SS: Mainly electronic. I’m really into Sohn at the moment.

WHF: What was the first piece of music you bought?

SS: It was Ian Dury and the Blockheads - Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick on 7in vinyl. My first CD was The Dark Side of the Moon.

WHF: What system do you have at home?

SS: It’s always changing. It tends to be what we’re designing. So I’m just about to get an NDX 2 streamer and NAC-252 preamp. Right now I’m running a NAC-N 272 streamer/preamp and NAP 250 DR power amp with Naim SBL speakers and two subs.

WHF: What sonic qualities would your perfect hi-fi product have?

SS: Pace, rhythm and timing – if you can sit down, press play and you don’t feel the need to skip, then that’s just fantastic. That’s the difference between a really good hi-fi and the others. When I was younger it was all about detail and bass.

I still like bass, though.

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See all our Naim reviews

The S2 speakers retain the same drivers as the K2s, so the ribbon tweeter that helped set the originals apart from the crowd is here, as is the custom-designed bass driver.

What is new is the internal design and the crossover, thanks to the use of new voice coils, upgraded components and a fresh printed circuit board.

Sonically, Roksan says the new speaker aims to retain the detail and openness of the original, but with "a more controlled, faster sound". We liked the original enough to award it five-stars on more than one occasion, so we have high hopes for the S2s.

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A bi-wirable speaker, the S2 measures 37 x 19 x 28cm (HWD) and weighs 8kg. Roksan lists the sensitivity as 88dB at 8 ohms.

The Roksan TR-5 S2 is available now in black gloss and costs £995.

MORE: Roksan K2 TR-5 review

The Roksan Radius turntable line was launched in 1989, originally as a budget deck, but has developed over the years to become a more premium turntable.

This latest version uses a decoupled dual-layer perspex plinth in a newly designed "glass-effect" finish.

The shape of the plinth has remained the same since the original, with Roksan saying it’s now better able to control unwanted vibrations.

Roksan says it has redesigned the decoupled motor in the Radius 7 from scratch, while also borrowing speed control technology from the company’s flagship £6,000+ Xerxes turntable.

The acrylic platter is the same as the one found on the Radius 5.2, which won a What Hi-Fi? Award back in 2010, while the Radius 7 comes with its own Nima tonearm.

The Nima uses a uni-pivot design and has the same internal wiring as the flagship Artemiz tonearm.

The Roksan Radius 7 will ship in the UK from March for £1900. Visitors to this weekend's Bristol Show will be able to have a listen in room 416.

See all our Roksan reviews

Vertere is a new company, barely a year old. The driving force behind it is Touraj Moghaddam, founder of Roksan Audio, and for the moment it specialises in audio cables, though there are a number of digital and analogue components in development.

The company has taken a back-to-basics approach, examining the exact job a cable has to do and how a signal travels through it – this intriguing design is the result of that research.

The Pulse-X speaker cable has a similar layout to the Vertere Pulse-B interconnect, but uses three sets of Teflon-insulated conductors, each made up of 11 conductors of different sizes and construction).

Being a speaker cable, it is also designed to work at far higher voltages and currents. It doesn't look expensive, but it's made well, without exuding any glitz or glamour.

Start listening, however, and that simply won’t matter.

Fine performers with everything

We used the cable over a number of months, trying them with everything from budget systems based around Marantz 6004 kit (around £310 a pop) up to some tasty set-ups including the likes of Burmester’s £50,000 077/911 MkIII monobloc combination, Naim’s CDS3 and NDX streamer (with 555PS outboard power supplies) and ATC SCM 50 speakers.

Cables, of course, can make the music signal only worse, never better. The best cable is the one that degrades the signal least, and this Vertere is all about preservation of musical energy. What's more its sonic signature remained truly consistent throughout.

In every system we tried, the effect was the same. The leading edges of notes were as sharply defined as you like, and packed a mighty punch when the music demanded.

More than that, the sound delivered was timed immaculately. This means not only that the hard-charging rhythms of Radiohead’s Kid A were punched out in all their glory, but also that the interplay between instruments was preserved and easy to appreciate.

This cable majors on control, insight and agility, not on making things sound nicer. It'll help a system communicate the drive and enthusiasm of a recording – it’s all about communicating the drama and passion of music.

Some will never be able to get past the price, and we can respect that, but those who can should try to hear the Pulse X in an appropriate system. If our experience is anything to go by, we think they’ll be mightily impressed.

See all our speaker cable Best Buys

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There’s something quite traditional and ‘hi-fi’ about owning a preamp/power amp combination.

And, French company Advance Acoustic gives you the chance for relatively little money in the shape of the MPP202/MAA402 pair.

The cost is reflected in the build quality, though: the front panel of the MAA402 power amp feels relatively sturdy but the rest of the chassis is a little flimsy.

The MPP202 preamp is equipped reasonably well, and features five sets of analogue inputs together with a 3.5mm input for hooking up a digital music player.

We’re a sucker for power-level meters, and those equipped on the MAA402 emit a subtle blue glow, each one pierced by a bright red needle.

It’s satisfying seeing them bobbing away to a beat.

A severe lack of finesse
Unfortunately, there’s something deeply unsatisfying about the sound.

To be fair, you’re greeted with nice spaciousness – but within that space there’s little order given to instrument and vocal placement.

Tunes are tainted with coarseness and a serious lack of refinement; music sounds flat and dynamically deficient, and it isn’t long before the amp loses your attention.

The preamp’s Boost EQ button provides a subtle boost to low frequencies for standmount speakers, but it doesn’t improve on the overall quality of sound.

The harsh reality is that a good integrated amp at this level such as a Roksan Kandy K2 or Naim Nait 5i tramples all over the Advance Acoustic pairing. And our star rating has to reflect this.

See all our preamp Best Buys

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We've long been fans of Roksan's enduring Corus Black cartridge. For the best part of two decades, this moving-magnet design has remained a great-sounding and reasonably priced proposition.

So it's of little surprise to us that we instantly warm to the new Corus Silver – it looks a lot like the Black version. The only difference being that graphic on the front.

Internal changes are subtle also, and amount to a revision of the stylus assembly, particularly the suspension system.

A Silver service in detail
The plan was to make the Corus Silver a better mechanical match for the company's entry-level tonearm, the unipivot Nima (as fitted to the Award-winning Radius 5.2 turntable). The results went well beyond that, surprising even Roksan, in a good way.

The Corus Silver digs up a terrific amount of detail, and has a fuller tonal balance without losing any of the precision or tautness of the original.

The Silver is also less fussy about partnering arms, and so will work better than the Black in a wider range of set-ups.

Easy to fit, harder on the wallet
It remains a doddle to fit thanks to its sensible shape, captive nuts and a reasonable tracking weight of 1.9g. Downsides? The price has gone up £75 over the Black.

The new cartridge is undoubtedly superior, but at £400 it seems a bit pricey considering the quality of cheaper rivals such as the Goldring 2500 (£224). Unfortunately, that costs the Silver a star.

See all our cartridge reviews

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We last reviewed this Roksan phono stage back in 2005. We thought it was good then, and it remains so now.

But don't even think about buying it unless you have a good quality turntable that costs at least three times this money.

Given a suitable signal, the M-Series SE makes a great deal of sense. It's very well built, and its hefty weight indicates Roksan hasn't taken shortcuts with the power supply design.

Like any good phono stage this one is adjustable – cartridges work best when connected to a specific electrical load.

Your £1250 gets you impressive resolution, strong dynamics and a pleasing sense of sonic stability.

Listen to Bob Marley's Stir It Up and there's much to like about the Roksan's transparency, timing and insight.

All in all this remains a top-class performer for the cash.