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  #11  
Old 01-15-2011, 04:29 PM
Still-One Still-One is offline
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Originally Posted by wakkz View Post
Boulder is nice. Listened to their Linux driven CD player connected to mcintosh mc1201 and focal grand utopia. Was quite an experience! Boulder is big very quality crafted piece of machines with as they say, patented patterns on its sides.
They patented the patterns!!!!

Now let me think. They actually patented nothing. I look at the sides and see holes or cutouts. The patterns are holes. A hole is the absence of something. Therefore they patented nothing. I Love this World.

Jim
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  #12  
Old 01-18-2011, 11:20 AM
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This photo from Stereophile's Web Site does show just now large these new Boulder amps are.

Jim
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  #13  
Old 01-18-2011, 10:53 PM
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Originally Posted by Still-One View Post
This photo from Stereophile's Web Site does show just now large these new Boulder amps are.

Jim
Ivan should get 6 of them to tri-amp the Fenice
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  #14  
Old 01-18-2011, 10:58 PM
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Ivan should get 6 of them to tri-amp the Fenice
Oh Yeah, I agree.
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  #15  
Old 01-27-2011, 11:27 AM
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Was fortunate to have dinner with Rich from Boulder last evening. What a nice guy. And he never gets tired of Boulder questions.

One reason their products cost so much is that they make virtually everything in house, including their printed circuit boards. They do out-source the transformers. But those are all hand wound by a specialty supplier to the medical equipment industry. I can't imagine how long it might take to hand wind a transformer for a 3050! The aluminum is aircraft grade and is sourced from the Seattle area. All aluminum surfaces are then ground down to ensure complete uniformity. Every piece, from the 810 on up, is handmade by a single tech. They have one guy that assembles 1000 series pre-amps and the 1021 CD player that is apparently legendary for his attention to detail. He even tries to match all of the stainless buttons on a particular piece. And he often throws away components he deems not absolutely perfect. And of course they're constantly performing R&D. In fact they just discovered a new way of producing PCBs which apparently lowers the noise floor markedly. Oh, and did I mention their proprietary gain stages?

I'm particularly excited about the new 820 DAC that should be coming out later this year. It apparently has the DSP and DACs from the 1021. Rich claims it will sound as good or better than the 1021. And it should be a fraction of the cost. It may even have wi-fi capability. I'll definitely be on the list for one of those for our game room system.

And, this is also exciting, I was told my new 1010 and 1060 are being assembled this week. They'll hopefully be replacing the 810 and ARC DS450 in our main system before the Super Bowl. Interestingly, there has been a huge run on 1060s in the last two months. In fact orders for that piece have been so strong that they ran out of transformers this month (each 1060 uses two). And with each transformer being hand wound there's just a wee bit of lead time when they order more. The transformer shipment they're receiving this week is already allotted to 1060s. As much as folks talk about the expense of Boulder equipment, the 1060 strikes me as a decent value for what it is, one of the smoothest most dynamic high current solid state reference amps on the market (though the price is going up a grand at the end of this month).

Anyway, many thanks to Rich for making time in his travel schedule to stop by for a very illuminating evening.

Last edited by AeroSmith; 01-27-2011 at 11:39 AM.
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  #16  
Old 01-27-2011, 11:52 AM
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I recently heard the 1060 driving a pair of Sasha's. The sound was excellent and talk about GRIP
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  #17  
Old 01-27-2011, 11:55 AM
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I recently heard the 1060 driving a pair of Sasha's. The sound was excellent and talk about GRIP
Ha ha, "grip" was a word Rich used repeatedly in reference to the 1060. I'm ready.
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  #18  
Old 01-27-2011, 10:10 PM
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Originally Posted by Still-One View Post
I agree with you 100%. There cannot be that much more to the BOM for those Boulder amps than in a pair of 1.2k's. Part of the issue is Boulder is spreading their R&D ad overhead over significantly fewer units.

Jim
No offense (and a happy 1.2kw user as well) but the level of sophistication between a pair of those big Boulder amps and the MC1.2kw's is pretty staggering. As is the performance diff too. That being said, I don't enjoy my 1.2kw's any less!
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  #19  
Old 01-27-2011, 10:15 PM
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Originally Posted by TommyC View Post
Ivan should get 6 of them to tri-amp the Fenice
What are friends for...
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Ivan
FLORIDA
MX136, MC1.2KW(10) MC2KW(2), MCD1100, MS750(2) MVP881, C1000C/P/T, MPC1500, HT-2 SUBS(2) HT3F(2) WS350(2) XRT2K, XCS2K, XR27(2) XCS350(2) JL GOTHAM v2 SUBS(2) SILENZIO MUSIC SERVER, LUMAGEN RADIANCE SCALER, SONY VPH-G90U 4K PROJECTOR, STEWART 120" MOTORIZED SCREEN, CINEMA-TECH SEATING, WW PLATINUM CABLES
Reference System: ACCUPHASE A300 AMPS, C3900 PRE-AMP, DP1000 CD/SACD TRANSPORT, DC1000 DIGITAL PROCESSOR, DG-68 DIGITAL EQUALIZER, T1200 FM STEREO TUNER, PS1230 POWER SUPPLY, HRS-SXR CUSTOM RACK w/ M3X SHELVES, TAD REFERENCE ONE MK2 LOUDSPEAKERS, WW PLATINUM CABLES
CAPE COD

MX150, MC501(2) MC1.2KW(10) MC2301(2) MR88, MVP881, MCD1100, MDA1000, C1000C/P/T, MPC1500, ESOTERIC K-01X 30th ANNIVERSARY (BLACK) SACD/CD PLAYER, G02-X CLOCK, HT3F(2) XRT2K, XCS2K, XR27(2) JL GOTHAM v2 SUBS(2) JL FATHOM F113v2 SUBS(4) SOUND ANCHOR STANDS(2) KALEIDESCAPE STRATO & TERRA SERVERS 80-TB, LUMAGEN RADIANCE SCALER, SONY VPH-G90U 4K PROJECTOR, STEWART 120" SCREEN, SONUS FABER STRADIVARI, SILENZIO MUSIC SERVER, FORTRESS SEATING, WW PLATINUM CABLES
Analog Rig: CLEARAUDIO INNOVATION WOOD, UNIVERSAL ARM w/ Da VINCI' CART, 2nd UNIVERSAL ARM w/ GOLDFINGER STATEMENT CART, HRS-MXR REFERENCE RACK-GLOSS BLACK w/ M3X SHELVES, AESTHETIX RHEA SIG PHONO-PRE, BRYSTON BHA-1 HEADPHONE AMP, WW PLATINUM CABLES
Reference System: BURMESTER 911MK3 AMP(3), 088 PRE-AMP, 089 CD PLAYER, 100 PHONO PRE-AMP, 948 POWER CONDITIONER, ACCUPHASE DG-68 VOICING EQUALIZER, AVID ACUTUS REFERENCE SP TT, GRAHAM PHANTOM II SUPREME ARM, BENZ MICRO LP-S CART, GRANDIOSO P1X/D1X STACK, G1X RUBIDIUM MASTER CLOCK, N05 NETWORK PLAYER, SILENZIO MUSIC SERVER, HRS-SXR CUSTOM RACK w/ M3X SHELVES, SONUS FABER AIDA SPEAKERS, JL FATHOM F113v2 SUBS(2) SOUND ANCHOR STANDS(2) WW PLATINUM CABLES

Library System: GRANDIOSO M1 MONOBLOCK AMPS, C1 LINESTAGE PRE-AMP, K1X CD/SACD PLAYER, G1 MASTER RUBIDIUM CLOCK, E02 PHONO-PRE, SILENZIO MUSIC SERVER, AERIAL ACOUSTICS 20T V2, AERIAL SW12 SUBS(2), CANTON REF K1’s, VPI HRX TT w/ SDS POWER SUPPLY, ORTOFON CADENZA BLACK CART, KLAUDIO RCM, SHUNYATA DENALI 6000/S v2, SHUNYATA OMEGA QR’s, WW PLATINUM CABLES
Esoteric/Bryston System: ESOTERIC C02-X PRE-AMP, P-02X TRANSPORT, D02-X DAC, G02-X CLOCK, BRYSTON 28B3 CUBED MONOBLOCK AMPS(4), BRYSTON BHA-1 HEADPHONE AMP, SHUNYATA DENALI 6000/S v2(2) EVEREST 8000 POWER CONDITIONER(2) ALTAIRA CG & SG HUBS, AMR-DP777-SE DAC, SILENZIO MUSIC SERVER, TAD REFERENCE ONE MK2 LOUDSPEAKERS, QUADRASPIRE RACK, WW PLATINUM CABLES
Accuphase/Canton System: ACCUPHASE E800 INTEGRATED, DP570 CD/SACD PLAYER, T1200 FM STEREO TUNER, DG-68 VOICING EQUALIZER, PS530 POWER SUPPLY, CANTON REF K3’s, CANTON REF K5’s, SILENZIO MUSIC SERVER, HRS MXR REFERENCE MAHOGHANY RACK w/ M3X2 SHELVES, WW GOLD CABLES
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  #20  
Old 01-27-2011, 10:27 PM
Still-One Still-One is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tonepub View Post
No offense (and a happy 1.2kw user as well) but the level of sophistication between a pair of those big Boulder amps and the MC1.2kw's is pretty staggering. As is the performance diff too. That being said, I don't enjoy my 1.2kw's any less!
Jeff
I am not speaking about sound, rather standard costs and BOM. We all know there is little correlation between the cost of materials and the end cost of a product. Just because Boulder chooses to tool their production a certain way or Zanden only has one individual qualified to polish their cases does not mean the cost do for aluminum is changes.

I have liked the Boulder gear I have heard and would have to say their gear powering the Focal EM's would be in the top three of all systems I have experienced.

JIm
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