The first time I set foot in a Boulder Amplifier “factory” it was in a large, rambling, soon-to-be-scheduled-for-demolition house in Louisville, Colorado. Since then, Boulder Amplifiers has had several factory locations, with the last one actually within the city limits of Boulder, Colorado. But six years ago Boulder founder Jeff Nelson decided that Boulder Amplifiers needed more space if it was to grow to the next level. He began developing a plan for an ambitious new facility that was realized in the Fall of 2016. Fortunately, the new space is large enough that Boulder was able to keep the facility fully operational during the pandemic, even with distancing precautions in place. On May 20, 2021, Boulder amplifiers had its first outside visitor in over a year. That would be me, serving as audiophile wingman for a friend. The new facility is as impressive as the amazing audio devices created within. What follows is a brief look into the place where Boulder products come to life.
1. A dedicated Boulder 866 Integrated assembly station. Each chassis is attached to its own movable platform which makes assembly easier. This where the first steps of a new batch of units occurs.
2. Boulder Amplifier’s mechanical design workstation. All chassis are designed and built in-house at the Boulder facility in Louisville, CO. IronCAD 3D is the 3D program used in the design of every Boulder product.
3. One of five CNC machining centers at the Boulder Amplifier’s factory. This one is being set up to machine brackets for the 3050/3060 amplifiers. If a design needs an aluminum part, button, bracket, Boulder makes it themselves.
4. Raw slabs of aluminum ready to be machined into amplifier bases for 3050/3060.
5. Subassemblies and circuit boards that have been tested or awaiting testing before going into a chassis. Each board is bar coded to track who did the assembly/soldering, who inspected it, as well as any necessary or additional revision information. Boulder knows exactly what board is in every piece of electronics that they build.
6. A 3050/3060 power transformer assembly. This assembly weighs over 100 lbs. alone. It contains four custom American-made toroid transformers that are fully insulated and then potted in a special epoxy compound.
7. A view of Boulder’s inventory of assorted power transformers ready to be tested and placed into potted enclosures.
8. Boulder’s largest sound room, which is sonically isolated from the rest of the factory (28.5 dB SPL base level room noise as measured via an iPhone app), is used for listening to new units coming out of testing. Every single unit that Boulder builds gets listened to in one of their sound rooms. This listening room was set up with Focal Grand Utopia speakers ($280,000/pr) driven by the Boulder 866 Integrated amplifier. Speaker cables from Westlake Audio.
9. A Boulder 866 Integrated amplifier on a testing cart in the sound room for final listening tests. Boulder 3050 mono power amps and a 3060 Stereo power amp also shown.
