Besides my 20th wedding anniversary and the 15th anniversary of <I>Listener</I> magazine's first issue, this year marks the 25th anniversary of Roksan Audio Ltd., easily one of the most innovative design and manufacturing firms in British audio. Before Roksan came upon the scene in 1985, none of us had ever seen a loudspeaker whose tweeter was isolated from its surroundings by a sprung suspension. Or a commercial phono preamplifier designed to fit <I>inside</I> a turntable, just a centimeter away from the tonearm base. And who among us could have guessed that the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/turntables/1103linn">Linn LP12</A>'s hegemony&#151;among flat-earthers, I mean&#151;would be broken by a turntable from outside of Scotland? Yet the Roksan Darius loudspeaker, Artaxerxes phono stage, and, above all, Xerxes turntable accomplished those things and more, to the genuine surprise of nearly everyone&#151;and to the benefit of our industry at large, as other firms took those ideas and ran with them.

Besides my 20th wedding anniversary and the 15th anniversary of <I>Listener</I> magazine's first issue, this year marks the 25th anniversary of Roksan Audio Ltd., easily one of the most innovative design and manufacturing firms in British audio. Before Roksan came upon the scene in 1985, none of us had ever seen a loudspeaker whose tweeter was isolated from its surroundings by a sprung suspension. Or a commercial phono preamplifier designed to fit <I>inside</I> a turntable, just a centimeter away from the tonearm base. And who among us could have guessed that the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/turntables/1103linn">Linn LP12</A>'s hegemony&#151;among flat-earthers, I mean&#151;would be broken by a turntable from outside of Scotland? Yet the Roksan Darius loudspeaker, Artaxerxes phono stage, and, above all, Xerxes turntable accomplished those things and more, to the genuine surprise of nearly everyone&#151;and to the benefit of our industry at large, as other firms took those ideas and ran with them.

Besides my 20th wedding anniversary and the 15th anniversary of <I>Listener</I> magazine's first issue, this year marks the 25th anniversary of Roksan Audio Ltd., easily one of the most innovative design and manufacturing firms in British audio. Before Roksan came upon the scene in 1985, none of us had ever seen a loudspeaker whose tweeter was isolated from its surroundings by a sprung suspension. Or a commercial phono preamplifier designed to fit <I>inside</I> a turntable, just a centimeter away from the tonearm base. And who among us could have guessed that the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/turntables/1103linn">Linn LP12</A>'s hegemony&#151;among flat-earthers, I mean&#151;would be broken by a turntable from outside of Scotland? Yet the Roksan Darius loudspeaker, Artaxerxes phono stage, and, above all, Xerxes turntable accomplished those things and more, to the genuine surprise of nearly everyone&#151;and to the benefit of our industry at large, as other firms took those ideas and ran with them.

Besides my 20th wedding anniversary and the 15th anniversary of <I>Listener</I> magazine's first issue, this year marks the 25th anniversary of Roksan Audio Ltd., easily one of the most innovative design and manufacturing firms in British audio. Before Roksan came upon the scene in 1985, none of us had ever seen a loudspeaker whose tweeter was isolated from its surroundings by a sprung suspension. Or a commercial phono preamplifier designed to fit <I>inside</I> a turntable, just a centimeter away from the tonearm base. And who among us could have guessed that the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/turntables/1103linn">Linn LP12</A>'s hegemony&#151;among flat-earthers, I mean&#151;would be broken by a turntable from outside of Scotland? Yet the Roksan Darius loudspeaker, Artaxerxes phono stage, and, above all, Xerxes turntable accomplished those things and more, to the genuine surprise of nearly everyone&#151;and to the benefit of our industry at large, as other firms took those ideas and ran with them.

Besides my 20th wedding anniversary and the 15th anniversary of <I>Listener</I> magazine's first issue, this year marks the 25th anniversary of Roksan Audio Ltd., easily one of the most innovative design and manufacturing firms in British audio. Before Roksan came upon the scene in 1985, none of us had ever seen a loudspeaker whose tweeter was isolated from its surroundings by a sprung suspension. Or a commercial phono preamplifier designed to fit <I>inside</I> a turntable, just a centimeter away from the tonearm base. And who among us could have guessed that the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/turntables/1103linn">Linn LP12</A>'s hegemony&#151;among flat-earthers, I mean&#151;would be broken by a turntable from outside of Scotland? Yet the Roksan Darius loudspeaker, Artaxerxes phono stage, and, above all, Xerxes turntable accomplished those things and more, to the genuine surprise of nearly everyone&#151;and to the benefit of our industry at large, as other firms took those ideas and ran with them.

Musical Fidelity's Tri-Vista kWP, introduced in 2003, was an impressive, high-tech, "statement" audiophile preamplifier. Its outboard power supply weighed almost 56 lbs&#151;more than most <I>power</I> amplifiers&#151;and its hybrid circuitry included miniature military-grade vacuum tubes. As I said in <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/solidpreamps/104mf">my review of it</A> in the January 2004 <I>Stereophile</I>, the kWP's chassis and innards were overbuilt, the measured performance impressive, and any sonic signature imposed on the signal was subtle and, essentially, inconsequential.

Musical Fidelity's Tri-Vista kWP, introduced in 2003, was an impressive, high-tech, "statement" audiophile preamplifier. Its outboard power supply weighed almost 56 lbs&#151;more than most <I>power</I> amplifiers&#151;and its hybrid circuitry included miniature military-grade vacuum tubes. As I said in <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/solidpreamps/104mf">my review of it</A> in the January 2004 <I>Stereophile</I>, the kWP's chassis and innards were overbuilt, the measured performance impressive, and any sonic signature imposed on the signal was subtle and, essentially, inconsequential.