We're no strangers to gigantic audio throwers here at Gizmag. A couple of years ago, we brought news of a monstrous iPod dock called the iNuke Boom that Behringer claimed capable of pumping out an incredible 10,000-watts, and earlier this month Sweden's Studio Total unveiled the 8000-watt second generation Wall of Sound. Yet both these systems combined couldn't come anywhere near the awesome power of the extremely expensive Opera Only from Italian designer Andrea Pivetta.
The Opera Only's creator says that his visually arresting marriage of art and high-end electronics is the result of a "desire to create something very special and unique from a visual point of view."
When at rest, the 1.25 x 1.9 x 1.25 m (4.1 x 6.2 x 4.1 ft), 1,500 kg (3,307 lb), 12-sided power amplifier can sit monolith-like in the corner of a room, showing no visible connection boxes or inputs. A radio remote brings the Opera Only to life, its six outer doors dividing and opening out to overall dimensions of 1.85 x 2.5 x 1.85 m (6 x 8.2 x 6 ft). Once the transformation is complete, LED lights help reveal the power electronics within.
This unquestionably gorgeous state of the art amp features six 30 kW triple-insulated toroidal transformers, 2,112 high current bipolar transistors, half a dozen fan coolers to keep running temperature under control, 24 analog (RCA/XLR) inputs and six digital, 12 output channels, and 192 speakON connections. It's reported capable of producing an awe-inspiring 160,000-watts of power (though the specs show output configurations of 2 x 60,000 W RMS, 6 x 20,000 W RMS or 12 x 10,000 W RMS), and has been designed to handle any speaker load.
The Opera Only can also come with an optional 15.6-inch, 1280 x 960 resolution capacitive touch control console running Windows-based Motu software. The system has a 3.6 GHz AMD 8-core processor, supported by 16 GB of system memory and 8 TB of onboard HDD storage. Wireless streaming technology can also be included, if requested by the customer.
Built using aircraft-grade aluminum and steel, each Opera Only is assembled to order and will take around 6 months to construct. The asking price? A cool €1.65 million (about US$2.2 million), with 35 percent of the cost payable as a deposit. If that's too rich for your blood, there's a less powerful single-tier configuration for €380,000 (over $500,000).
Source: Andrea Pivetta
