Roksan K3 Power Amp

Geordie Amanda

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I've just bought a Roksan K3 Power amp to partner my Denon X4700H receiver and Monitor Audio Gold 100s (5G) and what a difference it made, immediately apparent just upon switch-on! The instantly noticable difference is a huge lift in bass and bass response. My standmounts sounded 'almost' like floormounts. I was worried that the P.A. might add a bit of harshness to my set-up (I'd read of excessive brightness being a possible side effect of my set-up), but so far it's fine. I'm going to run the amp for a bit as the speakers themselves are only just about run-in, then after a while I will perform another Audyssey set up and reconfigure my receiver amps so that the front speaker outputs are not associated with the receivers power amps in any way, ie I will be taking the 'pre outs' as I am now, but the speaker terminals on the back of the receiver will be dead. I'm hoping to do this by telling the receiver I'm using 11.1 and switching off it's front amps and hopefully it will figure out the speakers that I don't have (eg height speakers). I'm currently running a 6.1 set-up as I don't have a centre and can't think of another way to stop the receiver trying to power the now missing front left and right speakers, that are currently attached to my power amp.

Thoroughly recommend the K3 so far and will leave it switched on permanently as it has an auto sleep function, so I don't need to put a trigger from the receiver into it and it should help the quick warm up that way I believe. I'm not sure if using the 12V trigger will mean the amp will be in a deeper state of stand-by if you see what I mean. I should go and read the instructions again :D
 
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Nice setup.

In your testing where you're hearing an improvement are you talking about stereo music played directly from the amp - or other sources passed down from the AVR?

If you're hearing a big difference with the Roksan in acting purely as a power amp mode I'm quite surprised - maybe running Audyssey will pull that bass back a bit.

My 4700 on it's own puts plenty bass through my front floorstanders in music mode, am quite impressed. They put out more bass than I've heard since getting rid of my Rotel 980BX to go down the AVR route.
 
It's probably the quality of bass he is talking about probably be more musical and open also.
 
It's probably the quality of bass he is talking about probably be more musical and open also.


Ah hem!! (Geordie AMANDA:facepalm:-women like hifi too ;) )

But yes the quality of the bass has improved, which seems to be a lot to do with the control of it. Bass appears much fuller and yet clearer. Organ music sound so much better than I ever thought the small Standmounts would produce. The Monitor Audio are a little tricky to drive and if you are listening loudly (as I do when the neighbours are out...or having a shouting match) I get the impression that the Denon is not as comfortable as the K3 at giving me those 32 foot pipes (I have an M sub as well which integrates nicely as it's a sweet 10" cone that doesn't overpower the soundstage). But listening to purely the front MA 100s the difference is palpable and the K3 amp give off the swagger it could sit with a 6 inch nail across the terminals and laugh at it.
 
Nice setup.

In your testing where you're hearing an improvement are you talking about stereo music played directly from the amp - or other sources passed down from the AVR?

If you're hearing a big difference with the Roksan in acting purely as a power amp mode I'm quite surprised - maybe running Audyssey will pull that bass back a bit.

My 4700 on it's own puts plenty bass through my front floorstanders in music mode, am quite impressed. They put out more bass than I've heard since getting rid of my Rotel 980BX to go down the AVR route.
I am currently running the Denon as a pre-amp on my front pair and also using it as a pre when listening to music. I have thought about the wiring for the XLR inputs and how they are connected across the RCAs as I imagine 2 of the pins are. Might be possible to use the XLR inputs with a dedicated music system and the RCAs with a HT system. Might need a bit of thinking about, so I don't create a big parallel fudge up.

I've just run the Audyssey again and I believe the whole thing still sounds better than with just the Denon driving everything. I'm still trying to get the Denon to run in 11.1 with just the fronts operating in pre out rather than having amps associated with them (the only practical way to turn off the front amps and disassociate them with the front pre-outs). The Denon keeps resetting to 5.1 when I run the Audyssey (I use the phone app which is a great thing to fiddle with :D, but it does allow a bit of fine tuning and you can get rid of the annoying mid-range eq dip that Audyssey imposes as default, around where it assumes your crossovers are -2.5khz )

The Denon put plenty of Bass through my old Epos M22s but they were probably not as tricky to drive as the MA100s. I would put the Epos back into the system on the front L&R, but they have been removed so I can send them off for a referb (when I have time and money) and they are too ruddy heavy to keep humping about :D

I had looked at amps with HT bypass mode, but the ones that had the price point and power output I wanted usually had a 'pseudo' HT bypass mode. Cambridge and the Cyrus for example (at my price point of course) lock an input to give something approaching unity gain and so act like you have a feed direct from the pre-outs on your receiver to the Power amp stage of the integrated amp. This is often not the case as you still go through the locked pre stage of your integrated amp too. I didn't want the extra guff in the signal path so went for the more direct route :) The Audiolabs 8300 offered a true bypass signal path I believe as did the K3 integrated amp. But I just couldn't justify the outlay on the K3 Integrated amp as I have a garage roof that need replacing and I am skint :rotfl:

You could argue I didn't need the X4700H, but I got it at a big discount and I need a receiver that is capable of high bandwidth video signal switching. The Denon supports HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, Dolby Vision and even an 8K input. That's the thing about receivers that often gets overlooked, the video capabilities, as people concentrate on the sound facilities. I'm under no illusion, I have a compromise for sure, but a good one imho and most importantly I am happy with it, regardless of whether others start to suggest how I could have got more 'bang for my buck'. I think that's the nirvana for hifi fans. Know what you like and go with it :)
 
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Ah hem!! (Geordie AMANDA:facepalm:-women like hifi too ;) )

But yes the quality of the bass has improved, which seems to be a lot to do with the control of it. Bass appears much fuller and yet clearer. Organ music sound so much better than I ever thought the small Standmounts would produce. The Monitor Audio are a little tricky to drive and if you are listening loudly (as I do when the neighbours are out...or having a shouting match) I get the impression that the Denon is not as comfortable as the K3 at giving me those 32 foot pipes (I have an M sub as well which integrates nicely as it's a sweet 10" cone that doesn't overpower the soundstage). But listening to purely the front MA 100s the difference is palpable and the K3 amp give off the swagger it could sit with a 6 inch nail across the terminals and laugh at it.
Sorry didn't notice your signature 🤦‍♂️ I just jumped right in. I agree with everything that you said.
 
As a matter of interest, did you ever try the 200 Golds with a K3? I'm considering a pair of 200 Golds at the moment

I did not in the end, but the Golds through a Denon 4700H and external Emotiva XPA-3 power amp sound awesome. Bass response comfortably goes down to 30hz using REW measurements so the MA's ratings are accurate. Bass response drops sharply at approx 26Hz.
 

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