A Do-It-All Amp With The Mark Of A Specialist

FOR Big, enjoyable sound; insight; refinement; features

AGAINST Some eccentricities in use; no coaxial or optical ins

It’s a testament to the quality of Roksan’s Blak integrated amplifier that our biggest issue with it is the deliberately misspelled name. Come on! Blak… really? Other than that, it’s a superbly rounded product that’s well made, sensibly featured and capable of a very fine sound.

Well equipped – and flexible

Roksan has decided against the minimalist approach with this design. If you want just a premium line-level analogue integrated, we would point you towards the company’s still-excellent Caspian M2 (£2000) provided its 85W per channel output is up to driving your speakers to the levels required.

But, if you need a fully equipped unit that can connect to your computer, smartphone, turntable and headphones, the Blak makes a mighty strong case for itself. Particularly when you consider its impressive muscularity, rated as it is at 150W per channel into an eight-ohm load that rises to 230W as impedance halves. This is a hefty amplifier all-round, weighing in at 14kg. It runs a little warm too, so make sure there’s enough space around it to ensure good ventilation. The Blak feels well built; it’s solid, nicely finished and a pleasure to use. There’s a bit of a Fisher-Price-toy look to the unduly large display, though at least you can read it from a distance even in bright sunlight.