Reviews

Roksan Darius S1

Many readers will

remember the
Roksan Darius from
1985 with its
distinctive design
and sprung tweeter.
The Darius S1 from
this British
company is a very
different beast!

Danny Worth and Stuart Smith

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R oksan has once again produced a speaker

with the name Darius, however now adding
S1 to the title.
The old Darius’ were a rather large speaker in com-
parison to these more modestly sized standmounts.
The older Darius model came in a frame which was
also the stand and was cleverly coupled/decoupled to
the speaker enclosure with a floating tweeter design,
a high frequency driver mounted slightly forward of
a recess in the front baffle via springs in the four cor-
ners.
Today's design is more conventional - thinner front
baffle sporting a ribbon tweeter protected with a wire
mesh and a 6" mid/bass driver with a metal cage
which protects the driver from knocks, a brushing
past the enclosure or projectile toys!
They have a deepish cabinet and are rear ported with
bi-wireable binding posts.
The cabinets themselves are weighty and solidly
made, they sound extremely well damped with the
tapping of the knuckles test.
The Darius S1's are £4500 including stands and the
ones I had for review were in a hard lacquered piano
black finish (white is also available).
Unboxing everything was a chore, it took me a good
hour and a half to get everything out of the packag-
ing, set up and playing music and I'm not one of
these people who puts on the white gloves (which Assembly was simple and took less time than un-
Roksan do supply) and carefully inspects everything packing.
and gently peels open the tape and lids of the con- I set the speakers up on their three point stands
tainers. Although of course I am careful with equip- which will generally self level by their very nature,
ment. however adjustments can be made on the gunmetal
Each speaker and stand has multiple layers of pack- coned feet.
aging, triple boxes, layers of Styrofoam, material With four small balls of blue tack between speaker
bags, plastic bags and tissue paper. and stand I felt they were secure enough and posi-
Each component is meticulously packaged and the tioning the speakers on the floor as whole piece was
cut outs of the foam are a complete OCD on package an easy task.
design, absolutely no amount of care was spared The finish of the speakers and stands is identical,
when ensuring that the S1's arrive in the same condi- both in the same piano black finish with Matt black
tion they leave the factory in and this really adds to metal outriggers at the rear bottom of the stand and a
the initial perception of a quality product and pride cable tidying void through the rear of the stand.
of ownership.
Roksan has even taken the care to address resonance
What was in the box was an elegantly finished pair in the outriggers by having an oval machined out of
of speaker and stands with fantastic attention to de- each arm, a touch which shows great care and atten-
tail, quality of finish and those small details such as tion to detail again.
the companies branding on the top of the speaker that
The Sound
exudes quality.

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Positioning the speakers wasn't a fiddly affair to as- I was assured that the 40wpc from the Emille would
certain the best sound in my listening space, a foot work very well with their 89db sensitivity and fairly
and a half from the wall and about 7 feet apart was easy to drive load and produce very nice results. I
the ticket. In larger rooms a few feet from the wall also asked for a solid state amplifier from them, to
and a little further apart dependant on listening posi- hear the companies electronic/speaker synergy. I
tion would factor in good benefits I'm sure. Toe in have the Clones Audio AP1 and 55pm monos here at
made more difference in my room, most speakers I the moment also, so a couple good tests for the mod-
ern day Darius were on
the cards.
Vocals were smooth, natural with top As the Clones were al-
to bottom frequency correctness and ready in situ in the rack,
the obvious first listen to
all the clarity and vibrancy of the best the Darius S1's was via
them.
female artist. After a little warm up
time whilst I was finding
toe in to fire over each shoulder, The Darius I pre- somewhere to store all the packaging the speakers
ferred a little less toe in than normal to open them up arrived in, I went straight into ascertaining what the
as much as the room would allow whilst still retain- bass response was from these average sized stand-
ing good depth. mounts, a real key decider for me when buying
standmounted designs over larger floor standing
Speaking to Roksan prior to the review I asked how speakers.
the Darius' would respond to valve amplification and
I went straight in for some serious pumping David
Guetta dance beats and my oh my, where does that
come from? was my first reaction. Bass has a rich
weight to it with punch a slap to a kick drum that
shocked me - really! There's a serious tonal quality to
the bass, it's so rich, controlled, rhythmic, dynamic
and bouncy. It's 47hz limitation has a smooth roll off
which never allows for the bass to seem as if it's
lacking by having a steeper cut off curve. Of course
the very lowest frequencies are not there, but there is
a sense of sub bass with the slope they have down
low. The integration into mids and the reinforcement
bass gives the other frequencies, is superb.
Driver dispersion is vast and wide and the harmonic
sense of encapsulation is strong in these speakers.
Details are produced very accurately, dynamically
but with a controlled robust sense of flavour through-
out the range, every note is under-pinned with
weight, body and fullness.
Moving into some vocal work and acoustic material
the Darius S1's had a chance to show off their mid-
range.
Vocals, wow! Vocals were smooth, natural with top
to bottom frequency correctness and all the clarity
and vibrancy of the best female artist. Deep rich
tones of male vocals are conveyed just brilliantly and
again it's the overall integration and coherence of a

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'whole' that prevails even when focusing on different
areas of the sound. I found myself being drawn away
from one aspect of the sound so easily and
unintentionally listening to the whole again, which is
something which doesn't happen very often at all in
my experience and just reinforces my previous
comment on their overall coherence.
The midrange as a whole is just so liquid and deli-
cious. Listening to favourite artists such as Chris
Jones, Nils Lofgren, The Civil Wars, Loreena McK-
ennit, Norah Jones and many others their vocals have
a balance and quality that puts the S1's down as one
of the best standmounts I've had the pleasure to listen
to, even if they just did 'this' type of music right, but
there is so much more to them, so before I get too
caught up in writing the whole review with the
Clones feeding them, I think it's time for an amp
change.
A quick note on the higher frequencies first though,
just to be consistent. In one phrase - sparkly, airy and
utterly refined yet ready to dance with decays that
add such 'trueness' to the overall presentation and
amalgamates the last portion of the overall picture
into one.
Valves - Emille KI40-L
The Darius are recommended to be driven by ampli-
fiers rated between 40-200 watts per channel at 4
ohms, the Emille is rated at 40wpc.
they would slow down just a little. The Darius seem
With Emilly heading the system, notes marched into to have more ease with various genres and partnering
space which seemed to have been freed up at her equipment, so far even though the two amps used
command, overall resolution and retrieval was a fair have different characters and different levels of ob-
step ahead of the Clones which produced a sound- tainable performance the S1's haven't seemed to
stage of such satisfactory proportions I almost didn't change their core flavour proving to be incredibly
plug her in on the same day, as I was enjoying the well voiced. The Ayons can sometimes show up little
performance so much. nasties in the top end with some amplifiers, whereas
Vocals gained added texture and a sense of greater the Roksans almost say 'I'll take what detail you can
umpixalated control. Guitar strings rasped and the offer me and just let me do my thing'.
wooden body resonated so naturally. Precision was Soundstage depth was better with the more capable
really at the forefront of this coherent window into Emille and centre focus was solidly portrayed with a
the music. Decay which had been so well conveyed nice bit of layering leaving a good void for the vocal
took on an almost luxurious roll and a grace of beau- to present itself with solid stature.
ty was presented right through the S1's frequency
Smaller transient nuances, reverb and inner details
range.
seemed to emerge more strongly now and acoustical
Theres a realistic integration of organic detail which space was more apparent on live recordings. The S1's
is woven into the musical fabric. really have the ability to convey micro details and
There's a definite synergy at work here that has me subtle shifts of texture within the performance and
questioning my Ayons somewhat, their speed and the soundstage never became over saturated or mud-
attack is fantastic, however sometimes I wish that dy in any way and what people relate to as a valve
distortion or I'd say quality, gave an embodiment to
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the sound which was fantastically musical and har- portunity to make the most of the opportunity to hear
moniously flavoured. how the newer version compared to the MK1 (the
Bass did gain another level of texture and layering, a M1 for me was not as special as the earlier amp) and
more organic embodiment of the representative also try the companies speakers with one of their
sound… a typical characterisation of valves of own amps.
course. I am dreaming of a good hybrid to cover all Candy Dulfers 'Nikki's Dream' Live In Amsterdam
music types with an even better potential, maybe a sounded magical on the Caspian, generous amounts
valve pre and class A power? That would make for of controlled bass coupled her Sax as it tore through
an interesting listen indeed. the air with textural vibrancy, emanating from deep
At this point I can not fault the sound of the Darius in the soundstage, which was accurately portrayed
one bit, really. It does give me fond memories of with Ulco Bes's electric guitar just to the right of her
what I liked about the MK1 Caspian. I always en- and layered with applause from the crowd. The sense
joyed it with whatever gear I partnered it with at the of liquidity remained strong through the Darius right
time, I always have referred to it as a completely through Roger Happel's vocal.
non-offensive amplifier, but in truth that doesn't do it In Lauryn Hill's MTV Unplugged performance of
justice, it was a lot more than that and always 'Adam Lives In Theory' she refers to the context of
punched above its weight in terms of refinement and the lyrics being about all mankind without exception
musicality. and one phrase she uses is;
Pairing with Roksan's Caspian M2 Integrated "Fantasy is what people want but reality is what they
need"
Which nicely brigs me onto the latest M2 version of This is a fantastic quote which for me relates to how
the Caspian. I've wanted to hear the new model for a the Darius S1 performs. Audiophiles talk about reso-
while and being offered the Darius was a great op- lution, dynamics, big bass slam and huge sound stag-
ing, often being initially fooled by a piece of
equipment or a pair of speakers when auditioning
them by their initial, what we refer to as 'wow factor'.
Yet find when the equipment is in their own homes
for a prolonged period of time it becomes tiresome.
The Roksans simply don't, they just continue to grow
on the listener as he/she explores their music library
further and in more depth - the S1's are "reality".
The overall flavour of the Roksan combination was
great, soundstage was completely solid and realistic.
Detail retrieval was strong and the integration of fre-
quencies was harmonious and didn't lack anything at
both ends of the musical spectrum.
Conclusion
During my time with the Darius S1 standmounts I
can confess I fell in love with them. With their cohe-
sive well tempered rhythms, their detailed and en-
gaging approach, with the ability to handle delicacies
and beats with ease, the S1's offer a tonal complete-
ness which will put an immediate smile on your face.
Depth was a notably exceptional attribute to point
out from a soundstage which conveyed natural tim-
bres and transients, without an artificially over em-
phasised edge, unless it was demanded of the
speakers when listening to heavy electronic dance
music.

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They may not be the absolute pinnacle of resolution
but any hifi product which boasts these claims in my
experience tends to be lacking in musicality and gen-
erally has a hard edge, swapping it for a wow factor
which very quickly become unlistenable. Roksan
have spent some serious time listening and fine tun-
ing these to reproduce a sound which lacks nothing
musically and conveys an awful lot more.
These are simply one of the best standmounts I have
heard.
Style, fit and finish as well as attention to detail, right
down to the efficient use of and complex nature of
the packaging adds to that pride of ownership and
compliments their high end sound.
It has been a very long time since I have heard a
speaker of this calibre able to reproduce music in
such a sensational way, I really cannot convey the
joy of my experience enough. Well done Roksan,
well done!
Build quality: 9/10
Sound Quality: 9/10
Value For Money: 9/10 - in today's market these
will give many higher priced speakers a real run
for their money.
Overall - 9/10
Highly Recommended - For simply being a truly out-
standing conveyer of music (full stop)
Speakers were set up 1m from the back wall and
Author - Danny Worth
1.5m from side walls with a small degree of toe in
Having achieved an overall score in excess of 8.5 towards the listening position. We tried them nearer
the Darius S1 loudspeakers from Roksan was sent the back wall but found a little into the room opened
for second review to Stuart Smith to see if it would the staging up nicely for us.
score 8.5 again and get the Hifi Pig Outstanding
The Tellurium Q Iridium amp with its 9W into 4
Product Award
Ohms produced a really lovely tone overall with the
speakers, but it’s clear that the Darius demands a bit

T his is going to be a relatively short second

review as I think Danny has conveyed pretty
accurately what I’ve heard with the Darius
S1s from Roksan.
more power to really get them singing. So with no
further ado I plugged in the excellent Soul Note SA
730 we have in for review which delivers a healthy
115W into 4 Ohms.
The packaging is indeed outstanding and the fit and Doug MacLeod’s terrific album “There’s a Time”
finish is exceptional on the speakers. The gloss piano comes alive with the guitar being portrayed in as real
finish is really lovely. They have good weight to a fashion as I’ve heard in the house. There’s a real
them and the stands match them perfectly – if they feeling of “being there” and the stage is wide and
were staying I’d be tempted to fill them with lead deep. There’s a bass drum kick on his Black Night
shot or similar. Bolting the speakers to the stands is a tune that’s very dry sounding and the Darius portray
relatively painless task, but tolerances are very tight this perfectly…as well as the little touches on the
– which is a good sign that there has been a good hats. Bass guitar sounds deeper than the specs would
deal of care taken over the construction. They are have you think and this was one area I thought I’d
made in England! find these loudspeakers to be lacking – I needn’t
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have worried - it is tight and accurate! There’s her voice. Likewise the vocal on Melphi’s “Through
texture to the vocal and you hear all the little the Looking Glass” album - the Darius’ just never
inflections and intonations in MacLeod’s voice get flustered at all and the music and vocal sound
which brings you emotionally closer to the feeling of correct.
the blues style of this record. Danny is right in that Soundstaging is really great (deep and wide) but not
it’s easy to appreciate the tonal coherence of these over done on all the tunes we listened to and this
speakers across the whole frequency range, though gives you a very non-hifi sound. You can listen to
you can’t ignore that the open and airy top end is these off axis and away from the hot seat, but sit in
really rather special in these speakers and this is the sweet spot and what you are given is a very
down to the ribbon tweeter! The way the tweeter realistic portrayal of the stereo image.
integrates with the woofer is really wonderful and the
crossover design and implementation is clearly very Conclusion
clever which is not something that can be said of I’ve listened to the Darius non-stop for the last week
some. or so and they are very good indeed. My personal
preference is for large
They are a great loudspeaker for a reviewer floorstanding speakers, but
I would be more than
as they are just so accurate, but at the happy to live with these
had I a more powerful
same time not clinical or fatiguing so you reference amplifier – my
do find yourself listening for hours on end. current speakers would be
up for sale if I had a
suitable amplifier and I’d
Our bass test track is Hardfloor’s “Once Again love to try them with an American muscle amp or
Back” and this can leave a lot of speakers all a fluster Roksan’s own Oxygene amp we reviewed a while
with the extremes of bass and electronic hats. With ago.
the Darius you get that the bass is pretty much all They are a great loudspeaker for a reviewer as they
there other than the very lowest frequencies, though are just so accurate, but at the same time not clinical
you do get a sense of them being there…if that or fatiguing so you do find yourself listening for
makes sense - I’ve just read Danny’s review back hours on end.
and he says pretty much exactly the same here. To
With the Darius’ you are given more of the subtleties
me a speaker needs to be able to reproduce bass with
of the recording, which is particularly notable on
realism and be fast (no overhang or unreal decay)
vocals, though the steel stringed guitar on the Doug
and the Darius’ do this brilliantly which is surprising
MacLeod album I mentioned is absolutely believable
given they only have a six inch driver!
and somewhat stunning!
These are very much like a very high quality monitor
I like these speakers a lot!
speaker in that they don’t accentuate or push forward
any one frequency in the mix and I like this a lot! Build Quality – 9
They also sound a lot bigger than their relatively Sound Quality - 9
small size would suggest. You do find yourself
Value For Money – 9
turning up the volume to quite high levels, but at no
point do the Darius’ become tiring or too much as Overall - 9
some speakers can – they just keep their composure Highly recommended for anyone looking for a
and just go …well, louder! Our room is relatively speaker that delivers an accurate representation
large, but not once did I feel the Darius were out of of the recording without being clinical or
their depth! fatiguing and they fully deserve their Outstanding
Kathryn William’s wonderful album “Crown Product award and despite their asking price I do
Electric” is again brought alive when played with think they offer great value for money in
this set up and I really loved it! The vocal is comparison to the competition!
represented accurately and there’s a real silkiness to Stuart Smith

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Copyright © 2014 Hifi Pig