The 9AS is a compact loudspeaker that could be used on a shelf or a stand, but most probably will be positioned on a desk in vicinity of a computer. With its height just over 300mm and its width about 210 mm, it is small enough to be accommodated in a crowded desk to support the audio subsystem of the computer but you still need some real estate anyway: This is not your average PC-speaker, so be prepared. It is a two-way design featuring a new 1-inch fabric dome tweeter for the high frequency part of the spectrum and a 100mm mid/woofer with a Kevlar diaphragm for the lows. The cabin uses bass reflex for loading, featuring two small diameter ports located to the rear.

As already mentioned, the loudspeaker is active and includes class AB amplifiers, one per frequency branch per loudspeaker, with a 65W amp for driving each woofer and 35W amp to drive each tweeter. The power amplifiers are preceded by a preamplifier stage and the corresponding active crossover with a cutoff frequency at 2.5kHz. Each loudspeaker hosts its own amplifiers, housed in an aluminum case that, also, forms the base of the loudspeaker and plays the role of a heat sink. The system is designed as a standard master/slave pair with the right loudspeaker housing the inputs and the controls and the left just being connected to it through a signal line and a trigger cable. This is the best choice in terms of cable management and ease of use.

9AS offers good connectivity options for its type and price class. It includes two analog inputs, one on the back with standard RCA plugs and one the right side with a 3.5mm mini jack, two standard S/PDIF digital inputs (one optical and one coaxial) and a USB port which allows file streaming from a host computer with sample rates up to 24bit/192kHz. There is, also, an output to drive an active subwoofer and a three-position switch to regulate the low frequency response, depending on the position of the loudspeaker in space and its user preferences (available options are boost, flat and shelf).

System handling, including activation, input selection, and level adjustment can be made either from the right speaker front panel, via a touch-sensitive panel that offers very good feel, or through the included small remote control. The latter provides a mute switch too.
The master loudspeaker hides a dense structure that makes Quad's intentions sufficiently clear. The d/a converter features a CS8416/CS4398 pair (the digital interface and the DAC chip respectively) with an XMOS based module to manage the signal from the USB port. The analog signals, i.e. the output from the DAC and the signals from the analog inputs are driven through a Rohm audio processor (BD3490) which in turn drives the power stages (a pair located in each loudspeaker). These are based on monolithic s TDA-series amplifiers (TDA7294). Overall, what we are dealing with is a fairly standard but well constructed design.

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