Roksan Caspian 4G Pre / Power streaming system

Monitor Audio has been the owner of Roksan for nearly a decade now - but it’s the last few years that have been most interesting. First came the Attessa range that managed to look and feel like a Roksan product while doing some rather clever things at the same time. With the groundwork set, the Caspian 4G Integrated took the same basic ideas seen in the Attessa but added a considerable helping of extra technology and engineering. We haven’t tested the Caspian 4G Integrated amplifier at Sound Advice - but I can attest to it being very good indeed. 

What you see here is the logical evolution of that integrated amp. Roksan has split the two sections into their own chassis, creating the Caspian 4G Pre and Power amplifiers. The arguments for doing this are pretty solid ones. A preamp is a device that operates at low voltages and tries to maintain delicate signals; a power amp runs at high voltages and has to work with a single, relatively large, signal. They get parked in the same chassis for convenience, but it results in compromises. 

By freeing each section from the same box, Roksan has been able to revise the layout of each device in order to improve performance. With the preamp, it has been able to add to the already impressive connection set - a moving coil phono stage appears alongside the moving magnet one carried over from the Integrated. If this sounds like an underwhelming upgrade, it’s probably worth noting the Integrated already does a huge amount. The preamp is based on the streaming version of the integrated - so you get three analogue inputs, four digital inputs, an HDMI eARC connection and a BluOS streaming module. All the digital inputs are decoded via the bespoke Rapture DAC that debuted in the Caspian Integrated. This is a spread of connections sufficient to ensure you technically don’t need source equipment, so it’s fair to ask what else Roksan could have realistically added. 

It is the Power amp that has seen the more significant revisions. The power output is unchanged from the Integrated, with 105 watts into 8 ohms rising to 200 watt into 4. If you are concerned that this isn’t enough welly, you can also bridge the power amp and run it as a mono amp. Doing so raises output to no less than 400 watts into 8 ohms and 630 into four - and there are very few speakers that will fail to respond to that. This amplifier is the same ‘Euphoria’ type as the Integrated, and is a proprietary arrangement using individual power supplies for the current and voltage amps in an effort to target intermodal distortion. 

Something that’s relatively unusual about the Caspian 4G Power amp is that it has no less than three inputs: one XLR, two RCA. It can be controlled via the MaestroUnite Bluetooth app that first appeared with the Integrated, which allows it to be powered off and on, have its settings adjusted and to switch between those inputs which - as I shall cover- gives it some interesting attributes in day-to-day use. 

Sound Quality

When Monitor Audio purchased Roksan, it devoted an admirable amount of time to working out what the characteristics of the brand are that appeal to owners - and subsequently ensured everything it did with its new products maintain these positive qualities. What this means is when I sat down and listened to the Caspian 4G Integrated last year, there was a naturalness and flow to its presentation that I immediately associate with Roksan. There is an effortlessness and fluency to what it does that perfectly partners a wide spread of music.

Splitting the Caspian 4G into two boxes doesn’t change this fundamental nature. This is still not a relentless or ballistic amplifier. Listen to gentler, more relaxed material and it never forces the presentation. It is capable of being impressively delicate, too - small-scale music is never made to sound bigger or weightier than it should. It’s a grown-up, sophisticated-sounding pairing. 

The clever bit is that when it’s time to stop listening to ‘nice’ music and inject a bit of urgency, the Caspian 4G effortlessly steps up the pace and impact. It still flows; effortlessly capturing time signatures and tempos in a way that sounds fundamentally believable and engaging - it simply flows faster than before. In fact, even when you are listening to absolutely ballistic material, the Caspian duo keeps everything under control.

So what’s changed? The first benefit is that the moving coil phono stage in the preamp is excellent. I am genuinely and consistently impressed by the levels of fine detail, superb tonal realism and out-and-out bass extension that it offers. It’s much, much more than a convenience feature and can happily handle some very serious cartridges.

The second is more generalised, but is an encapsulation of the benefits of a pre- and power amp combo. There is a better soundstage and stereo image, and the already excellent bass of the 4G Integrated is deeper and more assured too. Everything that so endears me to the Integrated is being done here - just that bit better. You might be disappointed at the power output being the same (in stereo, anyway) but I promise you that for any remotely sane pair of speakers it is going to be sufficient. For people that buy a bridged set, I can only hope your neighbours are deaf, miles away or fans of the same music you are. 

Living with the Roksan Caspian 4G Pre / Power streaming system

Thanks to choosing the streaming version of the Integrated as the basis for the Pre, Roksan might be seen as going from an all-in-one system to an all-in-two device. Thanks to its on-board streaming, the Caspian can operate as a completely self-contained system, without any other equipment required (beyond loudspeakers) should you so desire. 

What’s more, as this streaming system is the tried and tested BluOS platform, it won’t feel like an impediment to do so either. BluOS supports a host of different streaming services, has an excellent browsing experience, and scales effortlessly to fill a house. The Caspian 4G isn’t just self-contained, it's arranged in such a way that you won’t feel the urge to add extra equipment to make up the functionality.

Other aspects of the Roksan are no less thoroughly thought out. The combined volume control/input selector could have been an absolute disaster were it not for the fact it works really well - and the volume indicator and lighting around the volume control is clever and really rather intuitive once you get used to it. The standard of build is absolutely superb as well, even at their higher price for the two boxes over the Integrated.

Something else that is worth citing is the MaestroUnite app that Roksan devices use. This connects over Bluetooth and gives you access to tone control and various settings. It’s something that is genuinely handy, and it means the extra inputs on the Pre are something you can actually use (to have an AV receiver connected as well as the preamp for use in an AV system, for example). What these two units do brilliantly is maintain all the user-friendliness of the more affordable Roksan models but with an extra level of high-end flourish to them. 

Conclusion 

The Caspian 4G Pre/Power doesn’t radically redraw what the Streaming Integrated can do (for many people it will be all the amp they ever need), but it adds to the performance and flexibility on offer while maintaining the superb real-world usability of the rest of the range. It’s a seriously talented duo that should have the competition worried. 

Listening notes 

The Mars Volta Frances the Mute
Dangerously close to prog but magnificent for all that, the sheer variety of styles and tempos (often in the same song) allows the Caspian 4G pairing to show just how effortlessly it is across all of it. 

‍Katherine Priddy These Frightening Machines
The Roksan takes this stunning selection of folk music with teeth, and delivers the emotional goods. Priddy’s voice should make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up - they do so in fine style here.

‍Vox Low Vox Low
The vinyl pressing of this unique album (‘Daft Punk meets the ghost of Ian Curtis’ is my best comparison) is magnificent but dense. The Roksan opens it up and lets the results absolutely enthral.

If your path to this point in your hi-fi journey has been well-sorted all-in-one systems, the Caspian 4G allows you to step into a more serious configuration without losing any flexibility or user-friendliness. It’s really very clever indeed.

The Monitor Audio Platinum 300 3G was developed by the same engineering team as the Caspian 4G range, and it’s likely to play very nicely indeed with them. The Power amp is likely to have more than enough shove to get the job done, and everything is going to be built like a Swiss watch.