company industry manufacture tv & radio sound or video founded 9 august 1985 headquarters kingsbury london england uk key people tufan hashemi & touraj moghaddam 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 north west london united kingdom . it is best known for its influential and innovative design for hi fi equipment and in particular its xerxes platform for playing lp records . 1 contents 1 the company 2 products 2.1 turntables 2.2 loudspeakers 2.3 electronics 3 milestones 4 see also 5 references 6 external links the company edit roksan audio ltd. was formed in 1985 by tufan hashemi 2 & touraj moghaddam graduates of the university of london imperial college london & queen mary college . the company s first product was launched at a hi fi show in london in 1985 . 3 the name roksan itself is derived from the name of roksana daughter of the persian king darius . this closely reflects the persian heritage and roots of both hashemi and moghaddam . not surprisingly many of roksan s product names have references to names of cities places and famous people of persia now iran . 4 moghaddam having then just obtained his phd at imperial college became dissatisfied with the state of the audio arts when he heard his little tv set more musically satisfying than his already high end linn naim tri amped audio system and began experimentation . he deduced that where the existing turntable design failed was that the cartridge must be held still wherever the groove goes and thus the mean line traced by the groove relative to the body of the cartridge needed to be constant . 3 his ideas led him away from using the sprung sub chassis as part of the speed controlling system . moghaddam built a prototype using a fire door . hashemi a friend who had heard the new prototype turntable and wanted one teamed up to start the company . 3 the darius loudspeaker design based on the re examination of the relationship between and magnitudes of movements of the tweeter and the woofer was already in prototype . the concept stunned the trade when it was demonstrated at the 1985 hi fi show where the xerxes was launched . 3 in 1996 the company was acquired by verity plc a hi fi group that owned the mission wharfedale and quad brands . but when verity demerged around two years later to concentrate on flat panel speaker technology hashemi and moghaddam reacquired their company . 3 according to public records touraj moghaddam resigned his directorships of roksan on 15 july 2011 . 5 6 he remains at vertere acoustics where he focuses his efforts on cables . 7 products edit turntables edit xerxes .20 plus turntable with tabriz zi arm the xerxes named after the persian king who went around having a good time has been acclaimed by a number of hi fi reviewers . this belt drive turntable without a sprung sub chassis challenged conventional suspension designs for build and sound quality . 8 9 it succeeded in finding favour with british flat earthers . the design attacked the high ground 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 . 1 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 . 1 xerxes was named 53 hot product by stereophile in 2002 . 10 in 1991 roksan launched the flagship touraj moghaddam signature tms turntable named after the company s chief designer and founder . in 2002 the tms2 replaced the tms turntable . loudspeakers edit roksan was the first company ever to mechanically isolate the speaker tweeter from the bass unit using springs in their darius loudspeaker . 3 this design concept has since been followed by other high end speaker manufacturers . citation needed electronics edit roksan now has over 30 different products which include analogue and digital sources electronics amplification and loudspeakers for audio as well as home cinema . in 2009 following a philosophy of building quality components at an affordable price roksan launched the k2 stereo integrated amplifier . at a time when british manufacturers had done away with the phono stage for budget products the k2 was notable in actually having a 47k ohm input for moving magnet cartridges . 1 milestones edit 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 preamplifier 2005 kandy liii integrated amplifier power amplifier and cd player 2007 platinum preamplifier and power amplifier 2007 kandy k2 integrated amplifier power amplifier and cd player 2008 tms3 record player 2008 xerxes 20 record player 2009 kandy k2 tr5 standmount ribbon speakers 2009 radius 5 mk ii nima record player 2010 caspian m2 integrated amplifier and cd player 2011 caspian m2 power amplifier 2012 oxygene digital integrated amplifier and cd player aptx bluetooth connectivity 2013 kandy k2 bt integrated amplifier with aptx bluetooth connectivity 2014 kandy k3 integrated amplifier with aptx bluetooth connectivity dac and cd player see also edit list of phonograph manufacturers references edit a b c d dudley art may 15 2010 . roksan kandy k2 integrated amplifier . stereophile cite error invalid ref tag ; name dudley defined multiple times with different content see the help page . tufan hashemi of roksan audio hi fi pig 19 january 2013 a b c d e f harris steve 4 march 2008 . steady as a roksan . hi fi news & record review june 2008 issue . stemmelin pierre 25 january 2013 roksan xerxes 20 plus l autre platine vinyle de r f rence ... depuis 1985 . on mag touraj moghaddam sircom alan 2 july 2013 . roksan xerxes .20 plus turntable system . hi fi . archived from the original on 11 july 2013 . the sound of science . the new europe october november 2011 pp. 190 191 courtesy link geoff husband xerxes x turntable artemiz arm tnt november 2002 steward malcolm may 1989 . roksan xerxes artemiz . hi fi review c o malcolmsteward.co.uk john atkinson 40 years of stereophile the hot 100 products stereophile page 4 of 7 vol .25 no. 11 november 2002 external links edit official roksan website official roksan oxygene website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title roksan audio & oldid 672424333 categories 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