QUAD Artera Mono

About the QUAD Artera Mono

The QUAD Artera Mono is the latest addition to the best-selling QUAD Artera series of hi-fi components. It is developed with the strongest design features derived from its siblings, but shows updated internal audiophile-grade components and multi-layered printed circuit boards.

The design builds on the classic QUAD sound, increasing clarity and definition, but most importantly ensuring that the integrity of the musical performance is more accessible and the artist's message is clearly conveyed despite any shortcomings in the recording.

Key to the Artera Mono’s design is QUAD’s patented current-damping technology, developed by legendary QUAD founder Peter Walker. In the Artera Mono’s current-damping circuit, a very high-quality, low-power Class AB amplifier preserves the signal’s detail, while a powerful current-damping section provides the grip to keep the speakers in check.

This technology eliminates the problems of cross-distortion, thermal tracking and transistor matching. As a result, there are no internal adjustments or tuning and the choice of transistor types is less restrictive.

Following Peter Walker’s famous quote that the perfect amplifier would be “a piece of wire with gain”, suggesting the least complication in the signal path is desirable, signal purity is essential in any QUAD design, the Artera Mono takes this concept to the next level with the use of OCC wiring at the output stage.

OCC

OCC (Ohno Continuous Cast) is derived from a process developed to help overcome annealing problems and virtually eliminate grain boundaries in copper or silver using a unique patented process. The OCC casting method uses specialized heated dies to draw a single crystal up to 125 meters in length.

With only one crystal in very long lengths, there is an unobstructed path for the best possible signal transmission. In addition to this superior, single crystal structure, OCC provides copper and silver with the smallest possible oxides and other impurities.

In stark contrast to OCC, the materials traditionally used in audio electronics are classified as OFC (oxygen-free copper). As impressive as OFC can be, it still naturally contains numerous grain boundaries and other impurities. OFC has approximately 400 crystals per foot and despite its name, OFC typically has an oxygen content of around 10 ppm. Thus, the Artera Mono OCC design provides the cleanest output signal options.

Rated at 300 watts per channel (into 8 ohms), the QUAD Artera Mono is equipped to drive the most demanding systems. It offers instantaneous overload recovery and full overload protection without the need for output fuses or relays.

It has the power to master almost any speaker with relative ease – but it does so in a confident, almost understanding manner rather than trying to impress with brute force.

Finish

Like the rest of the QUAD Artera components, the Artera Mono is subtly understated and available in silver and black finishes.

The Artera’s crisp, clean aesthetic both evokes QUAD’s past and looks toward the future. The chassis offers a rigid structure that exudes quality and resists interference from external vibrations, with an etched aluminum front panel, an inlaid glass top, and a CNC-machined heatsink on either side.

Who is Quad?

Quad is a highly respected manufacturer of quality hi-fi electronics and loudspeakers, having developed award-winning audiophile quality products for over 80 years. Their highly praised reputation is well deserved. The company originally built loudspeakers for public amplification, switching to domestic hi-fi after the end of the war.

The first commercially available products were the Quad 22 preamplifier and the Quad II Monoblock power amplifiers, both of which enjoyed great success on the market for ten years.

 

View all specifications on the Quad website: https://www.quad-hifi.co.uk/artera/

• View all Quad products on our website: https://mister-hifi.nl/merk/quad/

View the accompanying preamplifier https://mister-hifi.nl/product/versterkers/voor-versterker/quad-artera-voor-versterker/

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