When I put together my first hi-fi system in the late 1960s, the amplifier was a Kenwood integrated. Soon I replaced the Kenwood with a Sony integrated, and then, a few years later, I bought a Lecson preamplifier and power amplifier pairing. It’s been separates for me ever since.
However, a reader wrote this comment on Stereophile’s website a while back: “It will be interesting to see if Stereophile catches up to the focus on active, integrated designs. The relevance of separates seems to be waning in comparison to these sexy and modern designs.” The commenter was referring to fully integrated, active loudspeakers, but his point could equally refer to the increasingly common integrated amplifier that incorporates line and phono analog inputs plus a versatile, network-connected D/A section.
In January 2020, I reviewed such a streaming integrated amplifier, NAD’s Masters Series M10, which I purchased after the review was published.1 The M10’s Dirac Live low-frequency room equalization made it a natural partner for my long-term reference standmounts, the KEF LS50s, which I had also purchased following a review.2
So when Editor Jim Austin emailed me to see if I would be interested in reviewing a new streaming integrated amplifier, the Attessa from British manufacturer Roksan, which, like the M10, can be controlled with the BluOS app and is priced at an affordable $3399, he didn’t have to ask twice.
The Attessa …
… is housed in a slim, rack-width steel chassis with an
