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  #11  
Old 08-23-2017, 09:23 AM
telematic telematic is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by joey_v View Post
There exists a black boulder from the factory
Thanx!!!
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  #12  
Old 08-25-2017, 07:48 PM
phunge phunge is offline
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Rich from Boulder posted this on another website back in 2011:

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Hello, Everyone -

Entertaining thoughts and ideas on our anodizing all, but none very close to why there's a surcharge for having things done in black (good efforts, though, Imperial!). Here's the story:

We do everything but anodizing in-house. Doing any type of anodizing in a city as environmentally conscious as Boulder is nigh impossible, it's done in Denver to our spec (by the way, the people commenting on YG's anodizing might like to know that they came to us for our vendor because we have color consistency, which is difficult to do in clear anodizing). To get this done, we don't just wrap up a bunch of parts and ship 'em - we have to go through an entire process to make sure that none of the metal was damaged in transit or in process.

We've resisted doing any kind of black anodizing for years and years, finally giving in on the 3000 Series stuff simply because it's hard to tell someone who is spending that kind of money that they can't have what they want. Why did we resist? Simply because normal (organic) black anodizing is a) inconsistent in color because it's not really black (it's blue or red or brown that's so dark it looks black) and b) is susceptible to oxidation where it'll eventually turn color anyway. How many heatsinks or chassis parts have you seen that are purple or brown or have a fingerprint on them that will never come off? That's the organic dye oxidizing and reverting to its original color. There's no way around this. It's going to happen to organic anodizing and that's that. This is what happens when you do black on the cheap based on the lowest possible price quote from your local shop. We can't have that because our gear doesn't have a faceplate that hides the rest of the amp - everything fits flush. Meaning that if the chassis parts were to change colors it would look a bit like a Rubik's Cube. We looked at architectural anodizing, but it's not very black (it's brownish) and it's not terribly durable. Look at the scratches on your office windows.

To get around this, we had to find someone that did a very specific type of synthetic hard-black anodizing (there are many kinds, we wanted a certain process and finish in order to be sure of durability and longevity and no color change). Which is easy. Except that there's no one in Colorado that does it. In fact, there's no one that does it except on the coasts. It's a nasty process and hideously expensive compared to normal anodizing. We sent metalwork samples all over the country and the one that we were happiest with came back from an anodizer in Oregon. Which is why the black anodizing finish from us is so expensive: we have to cut the metal and blast it (normal, just like all of our other products). We then have to have custom crates built to hold the metalwork and the giant plates that we bolt it to (this way, no one touches the metalwork and it never gets damaged) and ship everything across the country. Keep in mind how much some of the 3000 Series metal weighs and just how big and heavy these plates are and how strong they and the crates have to be to avoid any damage when banged around by shippers. It gets black anodized for us in tiny batches (there isn't enough demand for black to justify doing a lot of it or stocking black metal) and then it's crated up and shipped back to us. All of this costs us a fortune, but there are a handful of people out there who absolutely had to have black amps for whatever reason, so we went through the process of having everything done for them. We then figured that we can offer it to anyone who wants it if they're willing to pay for the costs involved.

It will not change color (we've had an 860 faceplate on our roof for over a year and it hasn't changed color - we've also baked it and applied every greasy fingerprint to it that you can imagine) and it will not flake off. Just like any other anodizing, it can be scratched, though it's a deep anodizing so it's very hard. Another word for anodized aluminum is aluminum oxide. Another word for that is sapphire. Quite the hard material if it's thick enough, so the finish is extremely durable.

As for our metalwork tolerances, anything on the exterior is done to .001" or .002" tolerances, depending on what it is. Anything that's powder coated will vary just because powder coating is an uneven finish. This keeps all the edges lined up properly. There's a small chamfer on each edge that de-burrs the metal and keeps everyone's fingers in one piece.

So there you go. Why black metal is expensive and why we don't like to do it.
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