HiFi Crumpet

[tino]

Roksan Oxygene CD player and amp.

Love the aesthetics of the Oxygene, but could never get my head around the price they are asking for the amplifier which appears to use £100 off the shelf modules.

 

[Gazzip]

Behringer Reference A500

I got one of these during the week. A truly astonishing amp for the money by all accounts. Haven't been able to verify this yet as I have no speaker cable long enough to connect it to my speakers, and at over 100kg each including stands I cannot move them any closer to the amp! Speaker cable arriving Monday (£3/m Van Damme Blue just in case TrevC is reading this.....*mosking* )

The thing that I cannot get my head around is that the horrible plastic front bit is totally unnecessary. If they took it off and cut the level meter in to the metal plate you can see sticking out from both sides of the plastic fascia then it would actually be quite sexy.

 

[Vladimir]

Roksan Oxygene CD player and amp.

Love the aesthetics of the Oxygene, but could never get my head around the price they are asking for the amplifier which appears to use £100 off the shelf modules.

They bought it off a Danish company (designed by Bo Christensen, founder of Primare) and overall the project had quite a heavy birth, claiming over $1M in R&D till the first fully functual prototype came out to market. Making the touch functions work through aluminium... that is one tough job. Requires very accurate manufacturing with tight tolerances to points of a millimiter. Also the Apt-X BT technology at that time was was exotica and Roksan got in through Burmester Germany. Sadly Oxygene took too long and too much to develop, they didn't really cash in for being in the first to implement Apt-X. Before it got marketed and sold, Apt-X already became less exotic and widespread through Hi-Fi and cheap gadgets. This is why they bumped it down to the Kandy series as a stock option.

Regarding the innards, those are perfected inhouse (dual mono, low profile twin Noratel transformers, low profile mundorf caps etc.), the aluminium case is made from solid billets (80 minutes to machine each case) and the dot matrix display is very sexy (and not cheap to begin with). There really is so much thought and money put into that statement product. Such a shame it sells for that low price IMO (compared to some audiophile wire). Not the first one for Roksan though. Plenty of such projects in their company history.

 

[CnoEvil]

Blimey, there is certainly a big discrepancy on what constitutes Crumpet...especially given that there is the whole Hifi universe out there to choose from. *scratch_one-s_head*

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

 

[Vladimir]

Behringer Reference A500

I got one of these during the week. A truly astonishing amp for the money by all accounts. Haven't been able to verify this yet as I have no speaker cable long enough to connect it to my speakers, and at over 100kg each including stands I cannot move them any closer to the amp! Speaker cable arriving Monday (£3/m Van Damme Blue just in case TrevC is reading this.....*mosking* )

The thing that I cannot get my head around is that the horrible plastic front bit is totally unnecessary. If they took it off and cut the level meter in to the metal plate you can see sticking out from both sides of the plastic fascia then it would actually be quite sexy.

You can custom order a slab of brushed enameled aluminium plate; screw it down on the rack mounting holes with some nice stubby alen screws; buy some guitar knobs for the pots and it's good to go in your living room.

Behringer A500 GTI (Gazzip Tweaks and Improvements) *biggrin*

 

[Waxy]

Blimey, there is certainly a big discrepancy on what constitutes Crumpet...especially given that there is the whole Hifi universe out there to choose from. *scratch_one-s_head*

...is in the eye of the beholder

 

[CnoEvil]

Blimey, there is certainly a big discrepancy on what constitutes Crumpet...especially given that there is the whole Hifi universe out there to choose from. *scratch_one-s_head*

...is in the eye of the beholder

....or it's being done Double Blind! *biggrin*

 

[steve_1979]

 

[Infiniteloop]

Classic 70's design:

 

[tino]

Roksan Oxygene CD player and amp.

Love the aesthetics of the Oxygene, but could never get my head around the price they are asking for the amplifier which appears to use £100 off the shelf modules.

They bought it off a Danish company (designed by Bo Christensen, founder of Primare) and overall the project had quite a heavy birth, claiming over $1M in R&D till the first fully functual prototype came out to market. Making the touch functions work through aluminium... that is one tough job. Requires very accurate manufacturing with tight tolerances to points of a millimiter. Also the Apt-X BT technology at that time was was exotica and Roksan got in through Burmester Germany. Sadly Oxygene took too long and too much to develop, they didn't really cash in for being in the first to implement Apt-X. Before it got marketed and sold, Apt-X already became less exotic and widespread through Hi-Fi and cheap gadgets. This is why they bumped it down to the Kandy series as a stock option.

Regarding the innards, those are perfected inhouse (dual mono, low profile twin Noratel transformers, low profile mundorf caps etc.), the aluminium case is made from solid billets (80 minutes to machine each case) and the dot matrix display is very sexy (and not cheap to begin with). There really is so much thought and money put into that statement product. Such a shame it sells for that low price IMO (compared to some audiophile wire). Not the first one for Roksan though. Plenty of such projects in their company history.

I remember the original Artora designs and was very impressed by the concept/product. I also seem to remember they were around half the price of the Oxygene??

 

[Vladimir]

I remember the original Artora designs and was very impressed by the concept/product. I also seem to remember they were around half the price of the Oxygene??

They were something like 5,000 euros for the CD and amp set. The Oxygene amp alone now is £3,300. Artora went bust and sold the design to Roksan. Making the set at the orginal price is apparently not profitable. *unknw*

 

[Vladimir]

 

[steve_1979]

It's not cheap but for a simple and stylish system it would be the perfect streamer/DAC/pre-amp for a pair of active speakers.

On a wall.

Or on a table.

 

[Gazzip]

Bang & Olufsen Beosound 5

I would knock that off the wall in 5 minutes.

 

[chebby]

I remember the original Artora designs and was very impressed by the concept/product.

I've always been impressed by the concept too

 

[Electro]

I used to own one of these and I really wish I'd kept it .

 

[tino]

I remember the original Artora designs and was very impressed by the concept/product.

I've always been impressed by the concept too

Impressive ... until it clogs your AORTA, unlike the ARTORA