Hi guys, this is HIFI Daydreaming, and let's daydream together on my journey to explore as much HIFI gear and goodies as I can, and share my thoughts with you all.
This will be a retrospective review of gear I used to have but don’t have anymore.
I have a lot of thoughts on these amps specifically, and I would like to share them with you. Also, prepare for raw editing, as I don’t have many images to cover parts of the video.
I don’t see many people talking about Roksan these days, which is a shame because Roksan is a giant in the world of HIFI. They were a premium company a decade or two, even three decades ago. Maybe they are more known for their turntables and cartridges. But today, in this flooded and oversaturated market, their presence, influence, and reach are not as prevalent. They almost feel like underdogs in today’s world of HIFI, and they definitely should not be. Certainly not with the quality they bring to the market.
In this review, I will dive deep into reviewing this great amp and also try to deduce why that is and what makes an amp competitive in this day and age.
Sound Quality
Roksan K3 is an integrated amplifier that delivers 140 watts in 8 ohms and 220 watts in 4 ohms. Yes, it is a strong amp, and yes, it does deliver big sound. It is a monster, in a literal sense, a monster made out of sugar and spice, and everything nice… a stupid pun to explain the "K" in the title which means "kandy." With a "k" not with a "c."
But it is one of those amps in this price range that delivers a great amount of power. And with great power comes great responsibility… to drive a large variety of speakers. But also to deliver on its promise.
And the promise of stable current for your speakers, allowing them to perform big sound at lower levels and large bass. Roksan mostly manages to keep that promise. It really does seem to push hardest to satisfy you. Roksan can be characterized with these words: Big, detailed, strong… and fun! It truly is an amp that does not care about clinically dissecting your tracks. It does not try to be the most refined amp in this category. It gives you sound which will envelop you and give you a rhythmic experience to drive your speakers, boosting their size and scope.
You can also easily pair these speakers as synergy should be good with most speakers. Though balanced ones might lack punch, warm speakers should give you that nice big sound. Punchy, treble-rich speakers should provide you with more fun and excitement, and a more detailed presentation. So if I were pairing them now, look at Dali speakers, Bowers and Wilkins, or maybe some Focal for great pairing.
Soundstage is really great, and it is helped by the exceptional way that Roksan layers all the sounds. It gives instruments texture and details, making them more rounded and creating perceptions of placement in the soundstage. Well-recorded albums, mastered for HIFI to create enough channels to space out all the instruments in spatial effect, take channels within the song’s core and place them in the correct space, giving enough realism to feel big and grand. The DAC inside your amp dictates order in chaos, taking incoming information and cleverly placing and decluttering them so the amp can stay open and deduce information forward to your speakers.
Speaking of DAC, I could not find information on which DAC is inside Roksan. It usually helps me understand the possibility of sounds when I know what DAC is inside which box. But without that knowledge, I can tell you what my ears tell me from testing with and without external DACs. It is a capable DAC that did well to organize the head and tail of complex structures thrown at it. We are in serious territory here, and we need capable DACs to play with expensive gear. I want it to help as much as it can my amp to deliver details and space in the soundstage. And it was really great, as it gave instruments placement, breath, and decay.
Now we go into the territory of dynamic response. Usually, here is where the character of the amp is built up. Some amps are punchy, some are balanced, some are warm, some are dark… It depends on the dynamic scale, what is emphasized, and what is not. Roksan is definitely in the territory of those muscular, dark-sounding amps. The scale tips in the direction of bass response. So the bass and lower mids are going to have more definition and presence. Bass is fantastic, just fantastic. If your speaker can produce great bass, it will be enhanced by the attack and dynamics of this amp. It is big, refined, and commanding. It builds a foundation for other instruments to lean on. It helps create this sprawling sound that creates a pulse, a pulse which is the heart of this amp, making everything rhythmic. The lower mids are super fun and detailed, allowing this amp to be very musical in that sense. There is a hi-hat, snare, cymbal – you know where they are, and they know where you are. They are present and forward, textured so you can pick with your ears their movement. Just an incredible amp for those who love this kind of big sound.
Let’s take some real examples. Let's talk about how this amp behaves in real life. What this amp does is provide a rhythmic experience, and you try something that can provide a lot of that. And you know what, let’s go with some Random Access Memories. How does it start? Pam pam pam pam pammmm, pam pam pammm – the hit of bass and drums welcomes us right out of the door. And it leads into the funky tunes of "Give Life Back to Music," filled with bass and rhythm guitar and a lot of small electronic details. But the heart of the song is rhythm, with that clap and snare setting up a tempo. It is commanding from the spot. It is so fun to listen to, and your body goes yes, yes, yes, and it moves. That is what is so fun with this amp, how I enjoyed myself just going through the entirety of Random Access Memories. Textures, details, and big soundstage make this an appealing amp. It lacked a bit of finesse in the mids, where I wanted more clarity and definition. I will touch on that a bit later, but when there is layering of vocals merging with some percussions, it could give more presence. It was a bit veiled by the bass response. Treble and upper mids, which there is plenty of here, including with a lot of pianos and strings, could have more definition and presence.
Some Issues and Problems
But then we tip the scale in the other direction and talk about the other side of the scale: treble. Here, this amp leaves a bit to be desired. It lacks the finesse and elegance of detailing and presenting treble. If you compare it with other audiophile gear in this range – and let me tell you, this price range is full of great audiophile gear – the treble is very good, not something where they fumbled the bag. But the quality of an amp lies in how much it can carry weight in comparison to other amps. It lacks the prestige of textures that almost feel real. Those textures create an illusion of presence, which is essential to building that audiophile magic. Details in lower treble could have more details and maturity, allowing them to graduate into adulthood, where they are independent and nicely layered with body and presence. That richness some other amps have is not present here. Returning to Daft Punk one more time, Paul Williams in "Touch" (from Phantom of the Paradise fame, who knows) – while in the first half of the song he fights to have presence in all this layering of different instrumentation, as it is a little bit buried with different organs, keys, and bass. When the end of the song arrives, and intentionally in production you can hear and feel the room where it was produced, it truly has a commanding presence. Paul does sound big, but breath and decay of sound going in and out are not so firmly presented.
Difficulties of HIFI Market Value
This brings me to my point from the beginning: what is an underdog in the audiophile world? How do you quantify that, and how does one product become competitive in audiophile markets across the world? You have to know that this amp was released in 2014; it is 10 years now since this amp saw the light of day. In 2014 it certainly had far more appeal than today. It was a fresh beast out of the oven. But the best fangs have dulled over time, with newer, younger, and stronger amps on the market. Roksan, even after 10 years, is keeping very firm with the pricing of this amp. There are a lot of great amps in this price range, and even more today. A lot of amps like the Naim Nait 5si, which is also from 2014, have been discounted a lot since their release. Same as the mentioned Naim, Roksan is now being owned by another company. Audio companies try to sell us magic and dust at a premium price, and some companies have succeeded in that better than others. But it is all about appeal and presentation, and marketing. I can guarantee you that nowadays, you cannot buy a 1000€+ audiophile device that is bad. There are a lot of similar devices that are also good with different characteristics, and they can suit you more or less depending on that. So how do you reach the audio listeners' rooms, hearts, and minds? You have to have something that separates you from others. Some unique characteristics of sound, some gimmick, or some special design… Being great audio gear is just not enough in this day and age.
Roksan K3 is a great amp. If you buy it, it will only bring you heaps of audio pleasure. However, when you're in a store looking at all these amps, it's just another amp—one that maybe offers a little bit less than others. It eventually becomes an underdog to brands like Cambridge Audio, Marantz, and Bowers & Wilkins, where just 10-20 years ago, it was the top dog.
It's a grueling market. You have to understand your realistic value and make risky choices by lowering the price enough to offer something that others do not have in that price range. I always think the biggest problem with the K3 is its price, especially now. You have to listen and adjust your brand so you don’t fall into the audiophile trap of believing that what you have is gold while others have a cheap copy.
I know some companies are overselling their toys for absurd money and still exist, but that’s because they are synonymous with that audiophile prestige. It's the same as Apple products in other tech areas. Just by saying "I have a Macintosh," people know that guy probably spent a lot of money on his gear and knows what’s up. But not all companies can do that. They need to acclimate to modern tendencies and values.
I've seen too many companies being stuck in their ways, believing how special they are, and not lowering their prices even when the gear is getting old. What they don’t know is, yes, you are special, but so is your neighbor and his neighbor as well. So listen to your customers, and grow and adapt with them.
I have two pieces of gear that I found somewhat similar to this amp that I would like to compare: the Naim Nait 5si and the Rega Elex Mk4.
Naim Nait 5si
Naim is an amp that is a fierce rival to the Roksan K3. If you had a chance to hear them both, you would know what I mean. Naim is not as powerful as Roksan, so that means Roksan is able to drive more speakers easily. Naim does not have commanding bass and lower end, nor the soundstage, which is weightier and fuller. In all of these points, Roksan takes the lead. If you love your vocals, instruments, and presentation to be full and commanding with massive bass, absolutely don’t even look in Naim’s direction.
However, Naim is an audiophile machine, which works best with the fluidity of songs and richness in mids. It is so easy to follow tempo changes and the flow of composition, and the rising and falling in the dynamic scale with this amp that does such a great job in texturizing and detailing its presentation. Yes, Naim is a bit more mature in mids and treble. You can feel in the percussion what type of drum it is made of—metal, wood, etc. It helps deliver a richer and more upbeat forward presentation compared to Roksan’s bassy and neutral one.
It all depends on what you like. Some people might really miss Roksan’s weight by switching to another amp, but might be happy with how much more clarity, separation, and details Naim has. It is all about preferences, and you can go in any direction, but Naim is cheaper now.
Rega Elex MK4
The other amp is, of course, Rega. The reason I chose Rega is that it is a new, shiny Elex in their lineup, nicely rounded and updated for modern markets. I think Rega does a fantastic job of updating and improving their gear for today’s market, even though their amps are almost always built for a more specialized audience. An audience that might be different from Roksan’s and Naim’s. That audience is ready to sacrifice balance and calm listening for very punchy, detailed, and agile listening.
Elex has an incredibly detailed sound that might seem a bit fatiguing if placed and paired incorrectly. But as always in this price range, you will have dynamics, details, and texture arriving at you in streams of sonic information. So yeah, the soundstage and details are in favor of Rega. But then again, both Naim and Roksan deliver a bigger, more muscular sound with miles better bass reproduction. It grounds music far more, as Rega easily can create a bright sound compared to Naim’s and Roksan’s more balanced approach. It also has significantly less power than Roksan, so it can drive fewer demanding speakers. But it is a bit cheaper amp, and for people who prefer more details, textures, and punch, well, Rega it is.
Conclusion
In the end, Roksan is a great amp. It is an amp that offers a lot of value as it is powerful, has many analog inputs, including a smart decision to add a HiFi bypass so it can work as an AV receiver help or alternative. And it definitely can, as it will give you that big and grand experience for movies. It certainly is strong and powerful enough to accommodate that need. So it has a lot of what one audiophile enthusiast would want in this price range. But for it to be fully appreciated in this price range, you have to be a certain caliber of audiophile that prefers a strong, big, bass-rich sound. Otherwise, in this price range, some amps deliver more.
And in this price range, I cannot call it a best buy or biggest value. I just cannot. It needs a discount so it can rival in a less competitive price range, making buying this more sense. Then it would have my badge of great value. For what it is, it is a great amp for certain audiophiles that will be given lots of audiophile goodies and a decent number of ports and flexibility. But Roksan is a giant and will remain a giant with a great legacy, and I personally cannot wait to see what more Roksan does in the future.
Thank you for watching this video. If you like this content, please like, subscribe, or donate via Patreon if you can. Keep daydreaming, and see you soon. Bye.
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