Quad Artera Play CD Player / DAC / Pre-amplifier – Black

Here we have a neat compact disc player, digital to analogue converter and pre-amplifier all-in-one from the design team at Quad Electronics. Our example of the flexible Artera Play is in good fully working order with some slight discolouration and a couple of small blemishes to the main unit and signs of wear to the remote control unit – please see photographs. It will be suitably packaged and comes with remote control unit, mains cable plus our normal three month warranty.
Quad Say….
Quad gave its team of designers and engineers a specific brief for Artera: combine the qualities that have made Quad one of Britain’s most revered hi-fi marques for many decades with fresh industrial design and the very latest high performance audio technologies. To this end, Quad enlisted the help of Rodney Mead, the man responsible for the styling of many classic Quad products in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, to brainstorm design concepts that would lead to Artera – a Quad component range fit for 2015 and beyond. Artera’s crisp, clean aesthetic both evokes Quad’s past and looks forward to the future, with a textured aluminium front panel, thick glass top and CNC-routed heat sinks on either side. The housing provides a rugged structure that resists interference from external vibrations, and the Artera Play’s fascia incorporates an intuitive touch-sensitive control that contributes greatly to its sleek design.
Despite their attractive simplicity, both Artera components deliver exceptional sophistication beneath the skin. At the heart of the Artera Play nestles the ESS Sabre32 9018; a 32-bit, eight-channel hybrid multi-bit Delta-Sigma DAC considered by many to be the finest D/A converter chip available for stereo sound. This is Quad’s first component to utilise the ESS Sabre DAC, and external digital sources can benefit from its exceptional quality via a range of digital inputs. These include USB, with support for PCM data up to 32-bit/384kHz and also DSD64/128/256, ensuring the Artera Play is fully equipped to make the most of today’s hi-res music formats, as well as future advances in ultra-high-definition digital sound.
For CD replay, a new slot-loading mechanism buffers data from the disc before feeding it asynchronously (in order to minimise time domain errors known as ‘jitter’) to the DAC section. Four digital filter options enable users to tailor the Artera Play’s sound, with both CDs and external digital sources, to suit personal taste and the nature of the source material. The Artera Play’s preamp section boasts a balanced Class A output stage. Two coaxial and two optical inputs cater for external digital sources alongside the USB input, with a pair of RCA phono inputs handling analogue sources. Analogue outputs are supplied in both single-ended RCA and balanced XLR varieties; a pair of digital outputs (optical and coaxial) and a 12V trigger output complete a comprehensive array of connectivity options.
The inclusion of full analogue/digital preamp functionality means the Artera Play can be connected directly to a power amplifier, and its perfect partner in this regard is the Artera Stereo. This compact yet potent power amp sports the latest iteration of Quad’s famous Current Dumping topology, first introduced in the legendary Quad 405 – one of the most lauded British audio components of all time and still the only amp design to have earned a Queen’s Award for Technological Achievement. Current Dumping is essentially a method of marrying the superior sonic purity of Class A amplification with the greater efficiency of Class AB. An extremely high-quality, low-power Class A amplifier provides the signal quality, while a high power current dumping section delivers the muscle to keep the speakers under control. These two amp circuits are combined via a precision network to perfectly impose the finesse of the Class A output onto the power of the current dumper. The result is a relatively compact and cool-running power amp capable of delivering a captivating combination of dynamic power, vice-like grip and sumptuous sonic detail.
Specifications:
General Description: CD Player & DAC
D/A Converter: ESS ES9018 32-bit DAC
Output Level (1 kHz): 0 – 2.5 Vrms (PRE Outputs); 0 – 5 Vrms (Balanced Outputs)
L/R Channel Difference: ± 0.02 dB (1 kHz)
Frequency Response: – 0.2 dB (20 Hz – 20 kHz, 1 kHz)
Total Harmonic Distortion: <0.001% (20 Hz – 20 kHz)
Linearity: ± 0.01 dB (20 Hz – 20 kHz)
Signal to Noise Ratio (S/N): > 110 dB (1 kHz); >118 dB (Weighted, 1 kHz)
Channel Separation: > 100 dB (1 kHz)
USB Input: 1 × USB (Support HID)
USB Input Sampling Rates: 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz, 176.4 kHz, 192 kHz, 384 kHz
USB DSD: DSD64, DSD128, DSD256
Digital Audio Inputs: 2 × Optical TOSlink; 2 × RCA (DIG1, DIG2)
Digital Audio Outputs: 1 × Optical TOSlink; 1 × RCA (DIG)
Digital Inputs & Outputs Sampling Rates: 44.1 – 192 kHz
Analogue Inputs: 2 × RCA (AUX1, AUX2)
Analogue Outputs 2 x XLR, RCA (PRE)
Dimension: 320 (W) x 320 (D) x 105 (H) mm
Weight: 8.5 kg