hi-fi streaming amplifier
SUMMARY
Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier
Price: $3499
+ Rich, powerful sound
+ BluOS streaming
+ Remote and app control
– Minijack headphone
Roksan is a UK brand which goes back to 1985, when its graduate founders launched the Xerxes turntable at a UK hi-fi show, its novel groove-tracking design wowing punters and critics, and beginning a long line of successful turntables and tonearms.
So it's a bit rude, perhaps, in this issue packed with vinyl joys, that we're not looking at a Roksan turntable, but instead the Attessa Streaming Amplifier, an example of the electronics into which the company later diversified during an evolution which included acquisition in November 2016 by British loudspeaker manufacturer Monitor Audio (itself recently enjoying the 50th anniversary of its founding by legendary hi-fi impresario Mo Iqbal).
One of the original Rokson founders, Touraj Moghaddam, is now applying his vinyl arts at Vertere. The other founder, Tufan Hashemi, remains Managing Director at Roksan Audio, where they continue to name products after characters from Persian history and legend: Roksan itself after Roxana, daughter of Persian King Darius the Great, and the Attessa presumably after Atossa, eldest daughter to Cyrus the Great, and wife to Darius.
Build & facilities
This Attessa is the company's first streaming amplifier, meaning an integrated amp including a digital section for networking and streaming. It's able to be operated using an app called MaestroUnite, which allows smart-device control of Attessa features — input configuration, headphone socket output voltage, analogue input gain, channel balance, and low-power standby mode. The
