Boulder 3050 Monoblock Power Amp

By Scott Wilkinson • Posted: Jan 25, 2011

If bigger is better, Boulder's new 3050 monoblock power amp is clearly among the best. This behemoth was unveiled at CES before being completely finished—the company is waiting for the transformers to arrive—but the specs are enough to make any audiophile drool.

Photo by Erick Lichte

Weighing in at about 400 pounds, the 3050 comes with a 75-pound cut-granite base. It can output up to 1500 watts of pure class-A power into 8Ω thanks to four toroidal transformers and 120 bipolar output devices. To achieve that kind of oomph, it requires a dedicated 240V AC circuit, ideally with a current capacity of 30 amps!

The 3050 will be made in mirror-image pairs, and Boulder has already received several orders, which, at about $180,000/pair, is a testament to the company's stellar reputation. In this case at least, it seems that bigger really is better!

Comments

Submitted by uavtmsorosk on February 2, 2011 - 6:05am.

Don't no what they sound like , but if there was ever a piece of kit that I would buy on looks alone .
Thats if I had 180 large lounging about . Or maybe one should wait till the 4050 Reference shows up , no use going half way .

Submitted by uavK.Reid on January 26, 2011 - 10:01am.

Wow! and I thought the Mark Levinson No. 53 was impressive. I love the clean lines. How does the unit dissipate heat? Are the heat sinks built in?

Submitted by David Vaughn on January 26, 2011 - 10:15am.

Definitely not "green certified!"

Submitted by Scott Wilkinson on January 26, 2011 - 9:34pm.

I assume the heat sinks are built in, and these monsters better have some huge ones. Class-A amps are notoriously inefficient, so they generate a lot of waste heat.