Roksan Audio
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| ROKSAN AUDIO LIMITED | |
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| Type | private limited company |
| Founded | August 9, 1995 |
| Headquarters | Alperton, England, UK |
| Key people | Touraj Moghaddam & Tufan Hashemi |
| Industry | Manufacture TV & radio, sound or video |
| Products | Hi-fi equipment, Audio-visual equipment |
| Website | http://www.roksan.co.uk |
Roksan is a British manufacturer of high fidelity audio products for domestic use, based in Alperton, Middlesex, United Kingdom, was formed in 1985 by Touraj Moghaddam & Tufan Hashemi, graduates of Imperial College London. Roksan's first product, an audio turntable named Xerxes, was swiftly acknowledged as a contender to the LP12 manufactured by Linn Products.
The name Roksan itself is derived from the name of the wife of Alexander the Great, Roxana who was a daughter of a Persian nobleman. This closely reflects the Persian heritage and roots of both Touraj and Tufan. Not surprisingly many of Roksan's product names have references to names of cities,places and famous people of Persia (now Iran).
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[edit] Products
[edit] Turntables
The Xerxes, named after the Persian king who "went around having a good time", has been acclaimed by a number of hi-fi reviewers as one of the best sounding record players in the world. This belt-drive turntable without a sprung sub-chassis challenged conventional suspension designs for build and sound quality.[1] It succeeded in finding favour with British "flat-earthers" who, up until then, had almost exclusively been devout followers of the Linn Sondek LP12.
The design was attacked the "high-ground" which had been "won" by suspended sub-chassis designs such as the LP12 by eschewing the spring isolation, which was then regarded as a major strength. Instead, it addressed the issues of Groove drag and lateral rigidity, the ultimate objective of which was to stabilise the relationship between cartridge stylus and the spinning record groove. Springs were not considered sufficiently rigid in the lateral plane, and permitted too much rotation of the suspended parts relative to the motor.[2]
"Groove- or stylus-drag" is said to be one of the causes of the undesirable torsional modes in the turntable sub-chassis. While most other designs relied on inertia (through platter mass) to attenuate the problem, Roksan retained a light platter, but addressed drag by mounting the motor on its own bearing and restricted its long-range movement by a small spring, so that the revolving armature could still drive the system. Momentary increases in drag would be absorbed by the motor itself, and changes in platter acceleration were mitigated. Xerxes was named #53 "Hot Product by Stereophile in 2002.[3]
In 1991, Roksan launched the flagship Touraj Moghaddam Signature (TMS) turntable, named after the company’s chief designer and founder, offered in black piano lacquer finish, with mirror chrome details. In 2002, the TMS2 replaced the TMS turntable.
[edit] Loudspeakers
Roksan continued to make its mark in the radical designs of hi-fi products for the domestic consumer. Roksan was the first company ever to mechanically isolate the speaker tweeter from the bass unit using springs, in their Darius loudspeaker. This design concept has since been followed by other high end speaker manufacturers. Their Hotcakes loudspeakers, launched in a variety of lacquered colours, set a trend for the design and manufacture of lifestyle products in the specialist audio industry; with its wooden multiple plinths and Art Deco looks, the ROK DP1 CD player became an immediate classic.
[edit] Other products
Roksan now has over 30 different products which include analogue and digital sources, electronics amplification and loudspeakers for audio as well as home cinema.
[edit] Milestones
- 1985, introduction of the Xerxes turntable.
- 1986, launched the Darius loudspeaker
- 1987, introduced the Artemiz tonearm
- 1987, their first moving coil phono cartridge, the Shiraz, was launched.
- 1988, Roksan's first lifestyle product, the Hot Cake loudspeakers introduced.
- 1989, introduced their first phono amplifier, Artaxerxes, fitted inside the Xerxes, into which plugged directly the tonearm cable.
- 1989, launched the budget Radius record player, Tabriz arm and Corus moving magnet cartridge.
- 1990, first range of electronics, the ROK S1 stereo amplifier and M1 mono amplifier with matching pre amplifiers and power supplies.
- 1991, Roksan's first CD player, the ROK DP1 introduced
- 1991, launched top of the range TMS record player.
- 1992, Roksan replaced the ROK DP1 with the Attessa CD playing system consisting of CD transport, DAC and power supply.
- 1993, production of the new Ojan 3 and 3X loudspeakers started.
- 1994, Rokone loudspeaker was released in a variety of real wood veneers.
- 1994, Attessa and the ROK series of products were fully upgraded to DP3 and ROK 1.5 versions.
- 1995, the 3 plinth 10th anniversary Xerxes.X, implementing design ideas from the TMS, replaced the original Xerxes turntable.
- 1998, the four piece Caspian Audio System (Integrated amplifier, CD player, and FM Tuner) was launched.
- 1999, a digital surround sound processor (DSP), a five-channel AV amplifier and DVD player were added to the Caspian system.
- 2000, Introduction of the new Kandy line, lifestyle starter Audio System.
- 2001, the Caspian phono amplifiers were released.
- 2002, TMS2 replaced the original TMS.
- 2003, release of the Radius 5 turntable and Nima tonearm, and the Roksan set-up LP for record players.
- 2003, Kandy MKIII system, (Kandy integrated amplifier, stereo amplifier, Three channel amplifier, CD player and AM/FM Tuner) released.
- 2004, Caspian M-series (Pre amplifier, mono amplifier, integrated amplifier, stereo power amplifier, phono amplifier, CD player, FM tuner and dedicated Xerxes speed control).
- 2004, released ALTITUDE, its first ever recording of a collection of some very special music from some very talented musicians.
- 2005, 20th anniversary Xerxes.20 replaced the Xerxes.X, incorporated the new improved TMS2 bearing ball and the new Rmat-5 sub-plinth for record players; reference R-series7 mono block, pre amplifier
- 2007, Platinum pre amplifier and stereo amplifier
- 2008, TMS3 record player
[edit] References
- ^ Geoff Husband, Xerxes X Turntable, Artemiz Arm, TNT, November, 2002
- ^ Art Dudley, Listening #49 : Page 1 of 2, Stereophile, Vol.30 No.1 January, 2007
- ^ John Atkinson, 40 years of Stereophile: The Hot 100 Products, Stereophile, Page 4 of 7, Vol.25 No.11 November, 2002
