5 out of 5
Key to the Artera Mono’s design is QUAD’s patented current dumping technology developed the QUAD’s legendary founder Peter Walker. In the Artera Mono’s current dumping circuit, a very high-quality Class AB low-power amp provides the details of the signal, while a high-power current dumping section provides the grip to keep the speakers under control. This technology eliminates the problems of crossover distortion, thermal tracking, and transistor matching. Consequently, there are no internal adjustments or alignments and the choice of power transistor types is less restrictive.
Following Peter Walker’s famous quote that the perfect amplifier would be "a piece of wire with gain”, inferring that the least complication to the signal path is desired, signal purity is imperative in any QUAD design, the Artera Mono takes this concept to a new level with the use of OCC cabling at the output stage.
OCC (Ohno Continuous Cast) is derived from a process that was developed to help defeat annealing issues and virtually eliminate all grain boundaries in copper or silver with a unique patented process. The OCC casting method uses specialized heated moulds in order to draw a single crystal up to 125 meters in length. With only a single crystal in very long lengths, there is an unimpeded free path for the best possible signal transfer. Along with this superior, singular crystal structure, OCC provides copper and silver with the least possible oxides and other impurities.
In high contrast to OCC, the materials traditionally used in audio electronics are classed as OFC (Oxygen Free Copper). As impressive as OFC can be, by nature still has a multitude of grain boundaries and other impurities. OFC has around 400 crystals per foot and despite its name, OFC typically has an oxygen content of about 10 ppm. Thus, the Artera Mono OCC design ensures the purest of output signal offerings.
Delivering 300 watts per channel (into 8 ohms) the QUAD Artera Mono is equipped to drive the most demanding of systems. It offers instant overload recovery and full protection against over-driving without resorting to output line fuses or relays. It has the power to grip almost any speaker with relative ease – but they do it in a confident, almost understanding way instead of attempting to impress with sheer brute force.
Like the rest of the QUAD Artera components, Artera Mono is subtly understated and available in silver and black finishes. Artera’s crisp, clean aesthetic both evokes QUAD’s part and looks forward to the future. The housing provides a rigid structure that exudes quality and resists interference from external vibrations, with a textured aluminum front panel, an inlaid glass top, and a CNC-routed heat sink on either side.
Who is Quad?
Quad is a widely renowned name within the world of hifi, having developed some of the most adept and highly regarded loudspeakers and electronics on the market for the past 75 years. The newly developed Artera series takes the company's prestigious level of engineering experience and design prowess and integrated their critically acclaimed sound into a compact, yet superlative system.
