The tagboard is at the heart of an Artisan amp. Every element has been refined from the components chosen to the layout on the board.

When each part is hand soldered to the turrets there is strict quality control about the exact shape and size of each solder ‘dome’. This obsession with detail is carried on through the wiring looms. Each one is made of shielded cable and twisted by hand, then carefully placed in the chassis. This process is a key part of maintaining signal integrity and minimising hum and therefore ensuring tone is optimised.

Like all Blackstar products, Artisan is designed for maximum reliability. For example, all power-dissipating components are de-rated significantly to extend their lifetime and hence increasing reliability.

As a standard part of our design process all amplifiers are thoroughly endurance tested on custom-designed automated test equipment to replicate many years of real life use in a few days of laboratory testing.

The design of the output transformers in a valve amplifier is critical to ensuring a highly responsive feel and a full, natural frequency response. All the Artisan output transformers are constructed using laminations made of the highest grade, grain oriented steel. This minimises core losses and ensures optimum fidelity and dynamics. The largest number of turns ensures the maximum primary inductance and hence an extended bottom-end.

Again the Artisan mains transformers are constructed using laminations made of the highest grade, grain oriented steel. In this case, this minimises stray magnetic fields, which can be a source of unwanted noise and hum.