Roksan

Roksan was founded in London in 1985 by Tufan Hashemi and Touraj Moghaddam, two graduates of the University of London — Hashemi from Queen Mary College, Moghaddam from Imperial College London — who shared both a background in engineering and a Persian heritage that would go on to define the company's identity. The name itself, drawn from Roxana, daughter of the Persian king Darius, reflects that cultural connection, echoed throughout many of Roksan's product names ever since.

Moghaddam's founding insight came from a moment of genuine curiosity: after noticing that his small television reproduced music more satisfyingly than his own high-end turntable system, he began experimenting, eventually concluding that the cartridge needed to stay far more stable relative to the record groove than conventional turntable designs allowed. That thinking led directly to the Xerxes, launched at a 1985 hi-fi show to considerable acclaim, quickly establishing itself as a genuine rival to the long-dominant Linn Sondek LP12.

Now part of the Monitor Audio group and based in Essex, Roksan continues developing turntables, amplifiers, and speakers guided by the same combination of precision engineering and musical individuality that Hashemi and Moghaddam brought to that very first Xerxes prototype, built from a repurposed fire door in 1985.