Quad Artera Solus All-In-One System - Silver

Quad Artera Solus All-in-One System is built for the modern audiophile, offering the convenience of a compact single unit and packed with features including a CD transport, DAC, preamplifier and 75W power amplifier.

It has abundant connectivity options plus Bluetooth wireless streaming. In addition to the standard CD playback, Solus has dual analogue and five digital inputs that are able to process 32-bit PCM along with DSD data.

Artera Series

Celebrating an impressive 83-year heritage, the British hi-fi brand Quad began the year with a new one-box addition to their hugely popular solid-state Artera range. The new Solus fuses a CD transport, DAC and pre/power amplifier in to a solo compressed chassis. Don’t be fooled by its elegant minimalistic styling, beneath the surface is cutting edge superiority.

DAC Chip

Quad nestles at its heart a reference ES9018 DAC chip, a 32-bit octo channel hybrid Delta Sigma model skilfully employed by Quad’s celebrated electronics engineers. Third party sources take advantage of the DACS outstanding quality through an array of digital inputs by handling up-to 32-bit/384kHz of PCM data and DSD64/128/256.
In turn, this guarantees that the Artera Solus is able to exploit high-res audio formats and ultra-HD digital sound. Additionally, a slot-loading device processes data from a CD before conveying it to the asynchronous DAC. Quad digital filters enable finetuning sound from both sources to accommodate personal taste and the source material.

Amplification

The Artera Solus’s preamp and power amp sections combine simple design with high-quality mechanisms to ensure small, direct signal paths that retain audio purity. Volume is digitally regulated in the analogue domain, outputting straight to the dual-mono Class AB power amp. This delivers 2x75W into eight ohms, with a top current delivery of 15 Amps into tough loads. For lower distortion, each channel's power supplies are isolated from each other and the rest of the system.

The isolated power amp circuits’ output stage uses a CFB topology alongside a regular emitter follower circuitry. The CFB stage provides better linearity and warrants first-rate thermal solidity, as the indolent current is kept away from the heat of the output transistors. This pairing is an efficient way of increasing the amplifier's current without compromising the CFB circuit.

Toroidal Transformer

A 300VA toroidal transformer provides twin mono amplifiers using discrete subordinate windings, followed by 2x15000uF reservoir capacity per channel. Vast effort has been put in to the visual layout of the Artera Solus’s circuitry, with autonomous low-noise power stores feeding all critical stages to keep interference to a minimum. The result is a performance on par with much more expensive multi-component hi-fi systems – detailed, natural, expansive and dynamic – in line with Quad’s continuing quest to deliver the closest approach to the original sound.

Connectivity

Five digital inputs, two coaxial, two optical and one USB Type B accommodate exterior digital sources (there’s also a USB Type A socket for software updates) while a pair of RCA phono inputs grip analogue sources. Analogue outputs are provided in both single-ended RCA and balanced XLR, with the four-channel volume control conserving the balanced signal path from the DAC to the XLR output. A pair of first-class speaker binding posts, optical and coaxial digital outputs, a 12V trigger output and a front-fixed jack joined to a devoted headphone amp circuit complete an all-inclusive connectivity arrangement.

Artera Joins Stream

Solus joins two existing mechanisms in the escalating Artera Series: the Artera Play CD player/preamp and Artera Stereo power amp. It is the first Artera component to offer the convenience of Bluetooth connectivity, including support for the sonically superior aptX codec, thus allowing easy wireless streaming from a wide range of devices – smartphones, tablets, laptops and more.

Artera Solus is a true all-in-one system component, flexibly equipped to suit the modern era: extensive wireless connectivity options; legacy CD playback; high-performance DAC/preamp circuitry for external sources; powerful and precise power amplification. Just add a high-quality pair of speakers ideally from the S or Z Series, and the result is a superbly capable and versatile audio system in an elegantly compact form.

Tradition Meets Innovation

Like all in the Artera Series, Solus shares the same compact 32x32cm footprint, with a crisp, clean aesthetic that both evokes Quad’s past and looks forward to the future. The housing provides a rigid structure that exudes quality and resists interference from external vibrations, with a textured aluminium front panel, thick glass top and CNC-routed heat sinks on either side. The sleek appeal of the Artera components is further enhanced by intuitive touch-sensitive controls built into their circular OLED displays; a fully featured remote control is also provided. Designing the Artera Solus proved to be a great test of ingenuity for Quad’s electronics engineers.

Contemporary Function

It was a real challenge to make the individual parts; CD transport, DAC, digital streaming, analogue preamp and power amp – perform to the level of a full separates system in keeping with Quad’s high standards, all packed into a single Artera Series chassis. Placement of components has been especially critical, together with careful routing of the four-layer printed circuit board, use of balanced circuitry to minimise interference and extensive power supply isolation. Combining the assurance of tradition with the buzz of innovation, the Quad Artera Series is the lifeblood of high-performance audio entertainment for modern music lovers.