New DAC - Roksan Kandy K3

Thanks to a hefty discount, I've just ordered one of these. Hopefully with me tomorrow.

Roksan | K3 DAC

 

Okay, so, maybe not today after all, but it will be here on Saturday. I decided I wanted to be in when it turns up, and not at work.

Anyway, all that aside, I wanted to see some reviews. What HiFi gave it three stars (they knocked off two stars because it's not the Chord Hugo or Qute) but thought it a solid performer.

Here's a good review, with a little more substance, from Hi Fi Pig:-

Roksan K3 Digital to Analogue Converter Review | Hifi Pig


Incidentally, this is available for £399/429 from Audiovisual Online in the UK. £599 from Richer Sounds, so two big discounts off the original £1250 retail price.

 

Quite a reduction!

Interested how you find it.

I heard the K3 CDP and amp demoed in a store. Forget which speakers but noted a nice overall sound.

 

I have recently bought a new DAC, and considered the Roksan Kandy K3, but in the end bought an Arcam IR DAC II. So far I am really impressed with it - largely neutral but with a hint of warmth, fatigue free but detailed and revealing. Am interested to see how you get on with the Roksan - certainly in terms of original list price it is in a class above my Arcam.

 

I visited the Audiovisual Online website (in the UK) and there it was. They're a good dealer and I've used them before for Fisual cables. Just landed at the right time I guess!

Story for the delayed reply. Forgot to put a watch on this thread!

 

So, it finally arrived today (Sunday) as the courier van broke down yesterday and DPD were good enough to let me know just before 6pm and me wasting a day indoors. Annoyed!

Out the box, it's a nice looking and hefty bit of kit. Big toroidal transformer and, a power button that's positioned on the underside of the chassis by the left foot of the unit - a first for me!

Build is excellent, no question, then again, for a £1200+ DAC, it should be. No plastic here and you get a Roksan logo stuck on the back of the top-plate.

The fascia is very much a thing that only a mother could love with a USB input and the various buttons, but they've stuck a curved white line indentation on it (cosmetic design feature y'know) and it immediately reminded me of the Pioneer CT series gear from the 80s.

That aside, I've had a listen to a few albums tonight and it's opened up nicely. Lovely sound thus far and it's an easy listen with a few albums to hand and everyone else in bed, leaving me and a bottle of good Scotch for company!

In terms of differences, there isn't a huge gap between the K3 and the Leema. Maybe a little more breadth to the sound from the K3, more substance, a little bigger and a little more corporeal. Not much in it though and of course, it's early days.

I'll update again in a few days time when there's a few nore miles under its belt.

 

The power button underneath and next to the left foot is a common feature of Roksan it seems. I own the excellent Roksan Kandy K2 cd player, and you get used to dealing with this button easily. What’s more it protects the player from some friends I don’t trust too much when they have the opportunity to ‘fool around’ with the stereo of the old man .

 

Hi there , just upgrading my hifi and have gone down the Roksan K3 route from Arcam FMJ, I already have the cd and amp set up which also power amps into my Denon AV Receiver, how are you wiring up your K3 Dac to your amp/cd ? The build quality and sound so far have been excellent so im keen on all configurations for the Dac to see what else it brings to the party.

All the very best

Charlie

 

Hi Charlie,

The K3's going into a Tisbury Audio passive preamp and thereafter into my Quad 9as active speakers.

The TV goes in via optical, and my Leema Stream CD player goes on via coax. Occasionally, USB top my Western Digital external hard drive too. Very happy with the sound quality, though only a very slight improvement on the Leema.

 

hi there sorry about my mistake, I am new to the forum I was wondering now that you have had the Roksan k3 DAC a short while how you are finding it. I was considering getting one myself from audio visual at the £399 to start a pc based headphone system , I plan to pair it to a good quality head phone amp and something like the Sennheiser 650, I have seen the reviews and it may not have been worth £1300 but with a £900 saving will it offer me a good starting point.

 

Hi, I've had it a few months now and cry much enjoy it. It gives me the connectivity I need, sound quality that I like, and build is excellent. Good range of file formats too.

Also, I wouldn't suggest that it wasn't worth the original price, rather that as a product, it sat awkwardly in Roksan's other K3 product range.

 

Thank you for your reply, i am glad to see you are enjoying it, i did speak to Roksan in regards to it who in turn said it was launched just before Monitor Audio took over Roksan. So the marketing wasn't really there plus the fact that many customers thought it too big for a DAC and prefered smaller offerings from other manufactures.

However where i wish to place it the size of it does not bother me, the sound however does to which end i have arranged a demo next weekend with a few headphone amps and headphones. I am very much looking forward to that.

I have in the past had quite a good Hifi set up based around Vinyl consisting of

Sugden integrated Amp
Roksan Xerses Turntable with heavily modified rega rb 300 tone arm and dynavector mc cartridge.
Ruark Taliman 2 speakers.
Grado sr325 headphones.

 

I always preferred full size gear I must admit. And the build is excellent; solid, robust and while it may not be compact neither will it tip over when you put a cable in it either. Hope the listening session goes well too!

And that Xerxes was a lovely turntable. Modded 300 or their own Tabriz would make a very fine pairing.

 

I bought a Roksan K3 DAC this week from AudioVisual Online as I wanted to be able to stream Apple Music from my computer to my Roksan Caspian M1 amp which was already paired with a Roksam Caspian M2 CD player, and ProAc S1 speakers. After the initial plugin and after five years of being used to CD-quality music from the M2 I was a little shocked as there was punch missing from K3 streaming Apple Music. But I started experimenting, playing a CD I owned two copies of; one from the M2 CD player and one transmitted from my computer to the K3 DAC. Switching between the two versions, it was clear that the K3, receiving a CD from my computer (although different) was capable of the punch I initially found missing. Happily knowing that the DAC met a level of quality that I was happy with I returned to work, streaming tunes from Apple Music which was the reason I bought the DAC.

The K3 DAC sounds different to the M2 CD player (at this point I'm solely referencing Apple Music from the DAC vs CD from the M2). The sound is both warmer, and thicker (but with less detail).

By the end of the day, I'd adjusted to the initial change to my setup and didn't want to stop listening to the lovely sound of the K3 DAC. So for me, the K3 DAC not only allows me to stream Apple Music from my computer, it brings another dynamic to my set up as I now have the very tight punch and pure clarity of the M2 CD player on one side, and the warm, thick sound of the K3 DAC on the other.

At £399 I'm over the moon. At £1,300, I'd be feeling the pinch, but I'd still have known that I had a quality item for my money – no doubt. I've read all the reviews, and as one of them says; 'sound is subjective', so in summary; I'd been missing a touch of deep, chilled sound from my setup and the K3 DAC is likely to become my goto component.

 

What would be a nice test also would be to download the trial version of something like Jriver media centre then download a dsd copy o one of your favourite tracks then do a direct comparison between your CD player and your dac, as opposed to comparing a pretty hi end CD to a 256kb apple stream.
Just a thought!.
Enjoy your dac.

 

What I have done since is quickly try one more CD vs Apple Music because for me the issue is am I happy to stream low-fi music compared to the CD standard I'm used to. Using Portishead's Dummy, I couldn't detect any difference between the CD (M2) and MP3 (K3) whereas there was a notable difference (clarity) between CD and MP3 when listening to Ian Brown's My Way. If it's easy, I'll try the test you are interested in; it depends if I have the right USB cable as I don't think the M3 wirelessly receives DSD. The more I've listened to it the happier I've become. Also, I should have mentioned that when I first plugged it in it was freezing and had just come out of the back of a van which could have factored in the significant change of sound I heard when initially switching from my usual setup. I will try a few more comparisons out.

 

I've tested two more CDs vs Apple Music; East Static's Last Ship to Paradise and Carbon Based Lifeforms Interloper. I'm not spending too much time on this, just putting them on and then flicking between the two and giving my first impression. There is a difference in quality with Interloper but none (in the parts I listened) to mention with the Last Ship to Paradise. For my needs and expectations, Apple Music is a good option to have which is why I got the K3, but I understand that other people will buy it for different reasons.

 

OK. Just tested John Lennon's 'How Do You Sleep' 2010 CD on M2 and high res audio file (same 2010 master) on K3. From what I briefly read this isn't meant to be a night and day difference, but the high res file on the K3 sounded better than CD on M2.

 

That's very interesting know, I am looking forward to matching a decent headphone amp to mine, then I may be a less to start enjoying some quality listening. Thank you for your time .
Regards.

 

Where did you download your hi res file from? At the moment I have just transferred the small collection of DC's I have left to flac and download the dsd version of Michael Jackson's thriller from hd tracks.

 

Qobuz and used their app to play it. I was thinking of using a track off MJ's BAD as an example but couldn't be sure of both versions would be the same. Good luck getting your headphone amp, and thanks for the nudge into high res.

 

glad you appreciated the nudge into hires, i did end up with an headphone amp, but at the moment one from the budget end. The schiit Magni 3 after quite a lot of research it was widely said that not much could touch it in the price range, and i must admit that after a week of burn in the combination is quite nice, then of course all kind of scenarios start popping up in your head, should i stream, should i buy hires files, should i even buy a cd transport, cd's nowadays are dirt cheap. which leads me to another question or test you may or may not have tried, given the fact that you have the m2 cd player and are well used to its sound signature have you tried connecting the m2 directly to the k3 dac, and seeing if there is much sonic difference between the m2's dac and the k3 ? it may well be that you prefer the overall sound of the k3, just a thought.

 

Hi can anyone send me a link to the t link transmitter driver. Thanks

 

I've just taken delivery of my second K3 DAC in two weeks. As with other contributors here I like the wide sound stage of the dac, it's build quality and it's many features, but I have been experiencing problems.

The first unit was a refurbished K3 from Richer Sounds - not refurbished very well it turned out as it had several faults, the main one being that the dac would not play through other inputs after being played through the usb cable. The dac had to be turned off and back on before it would play through coxial and optical. The input selector on the remote also stopped working after a couple of days. Roksan thought this problem was with the relay switch. Richer Sounds were willing to have it repaired again but I returned it for a refund after coming across the £399 deal for a brand new one from AV Online. This arrived yesterday and was playing fine through all inputs for several hours, but this morning I have had the same problem of the dac not receiving the signal from the coxial or optical inputs after being played through the usb cable without the dac having to be turned off and on. It's bank holiday weekend so I can't speak to Roksan til next Tuesday but wondered if anyone else has had this problem?

I really like this dac but Roksan were surprised when I reported this issue with the first dac, so I can only assume this happening on a brand new model is a fault.

Thanks. John