What Is The Cost Of Amplifier Casework?

Having built a muscled up Pass F5 clone I can absolutely assure you that the case is the single most expensive part of a power amplifier. Pass amps are pretty plain-jane as far as cases go. I used a steel 4U HiFi2000 case with no mods or extras and it cost almost twice as much as I spent on the power supply. Had I gone with the aluminum 5U case it would have made up almost half the cost of the amplifier. I look at some of these radically styled cases with pimped out dial meters (think D' Agostino), obscenely machined heatsinks (Boulder), and expensive materials like copper, and I KNOW at least half you money if going towards the box the parts are in. 

As for lots of time programming CNC machines.... Not really. I was a CNC machinist in a prototyping shop for several years. We used to make parts and guages for the space program, Pratt & Whitney, Ford, GM, Harley-Davidson, Price-Pfister, and god knows how many others. I personally machined almost all the parts for the left and right banks of the Ford V10 fuel injection system gauge and calibrated it myself on a Mitutoyo CMM. I've never seen an amplifier case that had any part that would take more than 15 or 20 minutes for an experienced programmer to program a CNC mill to bang out. Marking up the blueprint maybe 10 more minutes. That's assuming the CNC doesn't take CAD files directly. Aluminum extrusions are by far the cheapest way to make heatsinks. The only real expense is the die which is very expensive to make because it needs to be cut on an EDM from heat treated O1 steel and those things go SLOW. 

Depends on how many cases you order.  Figure a least $1K to $2K a case if not more to have a solid block of aluminum milled out.  In my business a plain case with just a few design changes can cost close to $350 to $500 per case for a box 12" by 8 1/2" x 6 1/2" powder coat plain aluminum with a 3/16" tick faceplate including name and rear panel lettering.

Happy Listening. 

What Is The Cost Of Amplifier Casework?

What is the approximate cost of the casework on the big Krells, big Pass Labs and big Gryphon amps? What is the approximate cost of casework on similar big solid state amps? mitch4t

With those sort of "glitzy" looking ones, at least half the dollars if not more.

This is why stuff from manufacturers like Schitt products, are doing so well, because inside they have what counts to make good sound, yet the exterior is plain jane cheap looking but does not detract from the sound.

Cheers George

Speaker Cabinets are the greatest cost to the speaker it self.  Dont know much about casing but honestly it depends on the compelxity of the case and the materials used.

What are the chances of a manufacturer getting the internal amp design to sound right if they can't get casework that is functional and looks good?  It would be like a songwriter saying the bridge section doesn't work, but the first and second first are solid.