Products

Avantone Pro Launches CLA-10A Active Studio Monitors

Avantone Pro announces the upcoming availability of its CLA-10A — an active studio monitor system following last year’s CLA-10 passive studio monitor and complementary CLA-200 studio reference amplifier.

Both were developed in close collaboration with Grammy Award-winning mix engineer Chris Lord-Alge (to whom they not only owe their shared ‘initials’ but also their very existence).

Avantone Pro released its full-range, two-way passive CLA-10 classic studio reference monitor in June 2018. Within months, the complementary CLA-200 studio reference amplifier successfully filled the void for a reasonably-priced, classically-designed Class A/B amplifier as a dynamic, high-resolution, full-range system built the ‘old school’ way.

The CLA-10A active monitoring system shares the same 35mm AV10-MHF high frequency silk dome-based tweeter and custom-designed 180mm AV10-MLF low-frequency driver — based on paper cone construction with pulp material that performs as closely as possible to the original by being press formed rather than die cut for tonal consistency — found in the CLA-10, as well as its cabinet construction.

The CLA-10A boasts a rear-mounted VTPC (Variable Tissue Paper Control) knob that allows users to simulate any version — from the vertical ‘m’ model to the horizontal ‘Studio’ version — and everything in-between. Better still, this tone control effectively enables each user to choose the tweeter brightness that best serves their individual needs.

Avantone Pro’s designers utilized a linear power supply to deliver 200W of Class A/B output. Obviously a heat sink is required to do so. So it weighs more as a result.

The CLA-10A uses a monolithic integrated circuit Class A/B amplifier with wide voltage range and high current-capable output. Operating in Parallel Mode — with two devices ganged together to deliver higher output power into low impedance loads — makes for better thermal load performance at high power. At low power, THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) is 0.005%; at rated load it is 0.1%.

The circuit uses a mixed bipolar MOS high-voltage technology called BCDII 100/120, which avoids secondary breakdown phenomena by handling high-current output without unwieldy circuit complexity and external components.

The system itself is being run at +/-40 VDC, yielding 200 watts RMS at 1kHz into 8 ohms. Obviously, rather than use an SMPS (Switch Mode Power Supply) with the associated noise that entails, Avantone Pro opted to take a traditional design route, remaining with a linear power supply. So the power supply itself uses a toroidal transformer to create the classic performance of an A/B amplifier.

Avantone Pro