- New flagship Quad amp launched alongside network streamer
- CD transport will join the range in 2026
- Available in November 2025
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English audiophile company Quad has announced a new flagship range of high-end audio electronics, the Platina series, which it says is “the new gold standard in hi-fi”. And the first model of the Platina series to be revealed is the Quad Platina integrated amplifier.
Quad is also launching a corresponding network player, the Platina Stream. And a CD transport will join them in 2026.
Quad says the Platina Integrated is the “beating heart” of the new series, delivering effortless musicality and precision.
Quad Platina Integrated: key features and pricing
The Platina Integrated is a Class AB dual mono design delivering 200W per channel into 8 ohms and 300W per channel into 4 ohms, allowing it to power even the most demanding loudspeakers.
This amplification is combined with a “massive” ultra-low noise 630 VA toroidal transformer designed specifically for this model and cascaded voltage regulators in the analog and digital sections.
The analog volume control is microprocessor controlled and features four separate channels to keep analog signals balanced all the way from the XLR input to the DAC differential output, preamp and volume stages, and XLR preamp output.
The digital stage is built around ESS’ Saber ES9038PRO DAC with a Class A post-DAC filter and two ultra-precise master clocks to eliminate jitter. A clock is dedicated to the sampling frequency and multiples of the 44.1 kHz CD standard; the other locks sample rates based on 48 kHz and its multiples.
The Platina Integrated supports PCM up to 32-bit/768 kHz and DSD up to 22.5 MHz (DSD512). Lower quality audio streams are upsampled to 352.8kHz/384kHz, and there is a choice of five DAC reconstruction filters for fine-tuning audio from digital sources.
As you’d expect, there’s a huge selection of connectivity options here. There’s a USB-C port for hi-res audio as well as two coaxial and two optical S/PDIF inputs, and there’s also HDMI ARC for TV integration – and that’s just the digital connections.
There are four stereo inputs – one balanced XLR, two line-level RCAs and one RCA deck with a newly designed phono stage. There are also balanced RCA and XLR pre-outputs and a 6.35mm headphone jack.
The headphone output has its own dedicated headphone amp circuit, which Quad claims delivers superior sound to other integrated amps with greater clarity, wider bandwidth, and superior transient response, making it not only an elite match for highly demanding options among the best stereo speakers, but also among the best wired headphones.
The Quad Platina Integrated will be available from November 2025 at a suggested price of £3,499 (approximately $4,700 / AU$7,239). Considering how much tech is happening here and how good it is, this actually seems pretty reasonable…
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