Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Stereophile

    Quad Artera Solus

    Feb 11, 2020 10 minutes
    HERB REICHERT

    The Quad Electroacoustics Ltd. Artera Solus is a multifunction audio component that was designed to look smart on top of a bureau in a living room or office. It comes with a thick, removable smoked glass top that complements its compact dimensions. It weighs 25lb, and, in addition to being attractive, feels genuinely solid and well-made. Like its Artera series stablemates, the Artera Solus strikes an intriguing engineering and aesthetic balance between decorator-friendly lifestyle product and serious audiophile product worthy of the Quad name.

    Description

    The Artera Solus was designed by veteran Quad engineer Jan Ertner. It includes a line-level preamplifier, a 75Wpc class-AB power amplifier, a headphone amplifier, a DAC, and a CD transport built by JVC.

    The Solus’s front panel floats above the unit’s recessed base and features a 2" circular display with some invisible touch controls. To the right of the display is a CD-loading slot bordered on its right by a rounded-rectangular button for ejecting discs; next to that is a Standby button.

    I found the Wide filter smoother than the Smooth filter and definitely easier on the ear.

    Hidden in the shadowed reveal below the front panel are a 0.25" headphone jack and an infrared receiver for the remote control.

    The back panel features two analog (RCA) inputs and five digital inputs: one USB B (Type B), two optical (TosLink), and two RCA jacks. There are also single-ended and balanced analog outputs—one pair of RCA jacks for the former and a pair of XLR sockets for the latter—plus one RCA digital output jack and one TosLink. Stereo pairs of three-way loudspeaker binding posts are provided, along with a threaded input socket for a Bluetooth antenna.

    The Solus use the remote. Without it, they would be forced to use either the Quad/FooBar2000 app installed on their mobile device or the invisible, touch-sensitive controls on the unit’s face—although once you know where they are and how to use them, these front-panel controls let you select source, play/pause, and control volume.

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from Stereophile

    Stereophile15 min read
    Balanced Audio Technology REX 500
    There was a period in the 1970s when many pop ballads that should have had understated arrangements instead turned grandiose and even maudlin. Take Gilbert O’Sullivan’s sensational single “Nothing Rhymed” (a track that went deep for a pop hit, refere
    Stereophile5 min read
    Classical
    Norma Procter (a); Ambrosian Singers, Wandsworth School Boys’ Choir; London Symphony/Jascha Horenstein High Definition Tape Transfers (1970, CD; 24/192 download). Harold Lawrence, prod.; Jerry Bruck, eng. At the 1970 session that resulted in Unicorn’
    Stereophile7 min read
    Deep Purple’s Machine Head
    Ow Ow Ow, Ow Ow Whaow, Ow Ow Ow…Wha-aa-ow. That simple G-minor melody, supposedly inspired by Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (or perhaps Brazilian composer Carlos Lyra) and played with the tone of a Fender Stratocaster doubled by a Hammond B3 organ, is u

    Related Books & Audiobooks