Granted, a cane and a high hat will not make you Fred Astaire, however some hi-fi gear does simply look the half. The Roksan K3 CD Di is a few such hi-fi.
Fortunately, Roksan has appreciable earlier for designing merchandise that play the half as nicely. The Caspian M2 (£1900), for example, has a mantelpiece stuffed with What Hello-Fi? Awards, and we aren’t anticipating this to be far off the tempo.
Options
A CD participant with digital inputs, the CD Di joins the K3 vary alongside its sole-purpose CD participant and the five-star rated K3 built-in amplifier.
Roksan suggests its skill to carry out solely as a DAC makes it a one-box “audiophile hub”. (The Caspian M2 would not have the digital inputs of a few of its rivals.
This does, and is able to dealing with knowledge streams as much as 24-bit/192kHz).
Sound
From the opening name and reply of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No3 in C Minorperformed by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, our visible impression is affirmed.
It is a matter of character: the devices sound wealthy, are nicely organised and set in a powerful quantity of house, however it’s the goal of their voices that units the K3 CD Di aside.
The sound is assured in its assault – however rendered sympathetically sufficient, as if conscious of itself, in order to not develop into overzealous – and nice expressiveness in its dynamics makes the piece really feel like a dialog between devices.
Subsequent we attempt a bit with vocals, Sigur Rós’s Yesterday. The music box-like glockenspiel and organ introduction elegantly showcases the rhythm and organisation of the K3 CD Di, constructing eerily with a dreamily off-kilter dance till the snare interrupts like a gunshot.
You could discover some rivals have a contact extra rhythmic drive and precision, however there’s a confidence in every thing else Roksan does that’s spectacular.
Jonsi’s voice is filled with magisterial triumph. Whereas full-bodied, with sufficient of a platform to face out, it is not thrown ahead or separated from the remainder of the devices.
The K3 CD Di lets the vocals soar together with their accompaniment, baring its depth with a pure effortlessness. That stated, we’re less-than-surprised to listen to a voice befitting the character Roksan has emitted from every thing else we have heard on this CD participant.
After a variety of moderately sweeping compositions, we lighten the load with Nick Drake’s Cello Tune. It sounds muscular, however delicate; the finger-picking is faultlessly rhythmic on the acoustic guitar, the pores and skin drum pops, the cello mournfully sings and Drake’s voice cherishes its fragility.
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A tough dwell recording, Miles Davis’s Spanish Keyisn’t any downside for the K3 CD Di both. The sextet avoids dysfunction, permitting the jazz and funk rhythms to fuse, maintaining its head above water regardless of the piece’s avant-garde improvisational model.
Anybody spending greater than a grand on a CD participant, albeit one able to getting used individually as a DAC, in all probability is not doing so with the thought of upgrading within the close to future a minimum of.
That’s why, once we award the K3 CD Di 5 stars, we’re joyful it’ll hold you glad for a very long time.
Verdict
There are many gamers at this worth providing sound-per-pound scale and element, however few are so musical.
Roksan has once more designed a product selling the character of what it’s enjoying, regardless how refined or opaque that character could also be, and that’s why you’ll by no means tire of listening to it.
See all our Roksan opinions
See all our CD participant opinions
