Caspian 4G Streaming Amplifier

The Roksan Caspian 4G Streaming Amplifier does three jobs in one box: network streamer, digital-to-analogue converter and integrated amplifier. Add speakers and you have a complete system.

Roksan is a British brand now part of the Monitor Audio group, and the Caspian name has been on its integrated amplifiers for decades. The 4G generation adds BluOS streaming, an HDMI eARC input for a television, MQA decoding, aptX Bluetooth and a moving magnet phono stage for a turntable.

What Apple Home actually does with it

This is an AirPlay 2 device rather than a HomeKit accessory.

• It shows up in the Home app as a speaker you can play to, and as an AirPlay target in Control Centre.
• You can assign it to a room and group it with HomePods for synchronised multi-room audio.
• Siri can send music to it by room name.
• It can be the audio output in a scene or an automation.

It is not an accessory you switch on or set the volume of from the Home app. Power, input selection and volume stay with the unit, its remote and its own app.

Before you buy

The HDMI eARC socket is worth noticing. It means the amplifier can take sound from the television over a single cable, which turns a two-speaker hi-fi into the television’s sound system without a soundbar.

Outputs include RCA, XLR and a subwoofer socket, so the amplifier can grow into a larger system later.

A one-box amplifier of this class is competing with separates. The argument for it is fewer cables, one remote and no source component to match.

Specifications