AXPONA 2025

In the Renaissance Hotel’s Connection room, Quintessence Audio of Morton Grove, Illinois presented Boulder’s new 1151 power amplifiers ($48,000/pair as monoblocks, see Stereophile’s June issue), a 1110 preamp ($24,000), and a 1108 phono preamp ($24,000), all making their AXPONA debut.

They were paired with Wilson Audio’s WATT/Puppy loudspeakers ($39,500/pair); Clearaudio’s Reference Jubilee turntable ($30,000) fitted with a Hana Umami Red MC cartridge ($3950); a dCS Rossini APEX streaming DAC ($32,800) and a Rossini Master Clock ($11,500); Innuos’s ZEN Next-Gen streamer-server and PhoenixNET network switch ($16,349 total). Transparent Reference cabling ($44,480 total) and a Critical Mass Systems Ultra Q rack ($20,810) completed the system.

Two Feet’s “Love Is a Bitch” (tell me about it) showed off how much bass this system could produce. The low frequencies weren’t perfect—they were better if a bit loose on London Grammar’s “Hey Now”—but it was certainly worthy of “Yo Bro, listen up, because this sound is so bitchin’ good” accolades. In a challenging room, and from a suboptimal seat in the last row, timbres were consistently arresting.