As a producer of affordable high-quality studio monitors, headphones, microphones, and accessories, Avantone Pro is a different kind of audio company — a creative vehicle, in effect, enabling its core team to bring to market the things viewed as missing in the industry. Indeed, this could be anything as simple as meeting a particular price point to give excellent quality for reasonable pricing, to a product that simply does not exist until built by that team. Avantone Pro is sensitive to the real-world operating budgets of bigger and smaller studios alike, and strives to offer products that anyone would be proud to own and use for the long-term.
As alluded to by its ‘numerical’ nomenclature, the CLA-400 can generate over 400W per channel into an 8Ω load, lending its use as a perfect fit for medium to large passive monitors in a studio environment where its standard 3U rack-mount chassis conveniently comes into its own. Of course, the CLA-400 clearly warrants pairing with large passive monitors that demand the highest amounts of power that it is duly designed to deliver from the ground up.
Ultimately, then, the CLA-400 is a dynamic, high-output, high-resolution, full-range system built the old-school way — as a classically-designed Class A/B amplifier weighing in at a reassuringly solid 22.2kg (49lb). As such, Avantone Pro paid particular attention to creating an amplifier in the traditional studio style, with ample analog VU meters, high-quality Japanese components, and a serious toroidal transformer linear power supply, as well as implementing a classic bipolar transistor design delivering a robust bottom end. Extremely low distortion, steady performance under harsh conditions, and open and transparent sound attributes all combine to make the CLA-400 an obvious choice for discerning studios seeking serious dynamic range.
Notable no-compromise components notwithstanding, it is worth noting that the CLA-400’s convection-cooled design makes for silent operation. Since there is obviously no fan noise involved as a result, it can reside in the same location as the passive monitors to which it is providing power — perfectly suited to installation in studio control rooms, in other words. Indeed, it is designed to be used in a studio environment requiring high power output with no fan noise.
While the CLA-400 delivers a powerful 400W into 8Ω under test conditions, it is also worth noting that it can run at one third power without thermal fault — findings borne out by its tech specs: 8Ω stereo power (1kHz): 360W; 4Ω stereo power (1kHz): 540W; 8Ω bridge power (1kHz): 760W; slew rate (at 1kHz): 28V/us; input sensitivity (1kHz): 0.775V (0dBU); Total Harmonic Distortion (1kHz): <0.1%; intermodulation distortion (at 10% rated power 1KHz): <0.1%; crosstalk: -70dB; input impedance: 20KΩ (balanced)/10kΩ (unbalanced); damping factor (100Hz, 8Ω): 250; signal-to-noise ratio (A Weighted): >103dB.
Time to make some room in a suitable studio rack and make an attentive return to passive monitoring, maybe? The CLA-400 is available at Avantone Pro’s US Dealers for $1,199.00 USD (MAP) or €1,199.00 EUR, excluding VAT.
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