| Type | private limited company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Manufacture TV & radio, sound or video |
| Founded | 9 August 1995 |
| Headquarters | Kingsbury, London, England, UK |
| Key people | Touraj Moghaddam & Tufan Hashemi |
| 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, was formed in 1985 by Touraj Moghaddam & Tufan Hashemi, graduates of the University of London, Imperial College London & Queen Mary College. 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 Roksana, daughter of the Persian King Darius. 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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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.[1] It succeeded in finding favour with British "flat-earthers"
The design 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. In 2002, the TMS2 replaced the TMS turntable.
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.
Roksan now has over 30 different products which include analogue and digital sources, electronics amplification and loudspeakers for audio as well as home cinema.