450 Pound Monobloc Amplifier


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The Boulder 3050 monobloc weighs 450 pounds, 1500 wpc.

A pair of monoblocs weighing right at a half-ton...amazing.

The Pass Labs XS 300 monobloc weighs 300 pounds, 300 wpc.

With all of the advances in amplifier design, does an amp really have to be that big to get the results they're after?

The 1500 wpc D-Sonic monobloc weigh 12 pounds...I love it!
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128x128mitch4t
My Class D Bel Canto monoblocks are each 8.5" (216mm) W by 3.5" (88mm) H by 12" (305mm) D. Weight: 18.5 lbs (9kg). 500w/ch. Very well reviewed. Still recommended by mags after having been out for several years. They sound as good as pretty much anything I have ever heard (I have heard a lot!).

David versus Goliath?
"Man, a 1500 watt Class-A amp must be one HELL of a home heating device!! Not to mention being able to cook yer bacon and eggs while listening to your system..."

Not to mention the power utilization even when not playing?

I guess Boulder is not a "green" company. No moss growing there!

If it catches on, world peace might be threatened. Where is 007? Tell him to withdraw from whatever he may be doing. Evil audio threatens!
Any mags or other "trusted" sources done any shootouts between the biggest monster amps and best of the much smaller Class Ds in recent years? Lots of good reviews for both camps, but how do they really compare sound-wise on various systems that can truly benefit from a lot of juice?
Mapman, there is still less than a handful of manufacturers that are shipping amps built around the new class D technologies.... Merrill Audio, D-Sonics, Acoustic Imagery, and Mola-Mola. And reviews are still fewer than that.
Guido,

How about the current generation Class Ds that have been out there for a while, Icepower-based, Spectral, others? That would be a good baseline for such a comparison to see if/how the latest gen has upped the ante.

I've probably read such things in bits and pieces from various sources in recent years, especially when I was researching my own hi power amp purchase a few years back (yes I considered big monster amps from Pass, Krell, and others at the time but had no desire to go that way if avoidable), but I do not recall any comprehensive "shootouts" from a single source.