AXPONA Chicago April 10-12, 2026 - Who is going??

Though I've hit the last two years of the FL Audio Show, I hadn't been to Axpona since '19.  BIG show.  Was there for 5 hours. Saw/heard a ton of stuff.  Three speakers (actually two) stood out for me, above the "typical" technical wonders of many, many speakers sounding really good. 

Room 454, Altec Ribbonacci Reference..WOW.  I guess as of last year, Altec is getting back into high-end audio. The Ribbonacci's are push-pull planar magnetics (somewhat similar, I'd guess, to Eminent Tech's LFTs). In a too small room, but the sound was heads and shoulders above about all of what I heard throughout the day, regardless of cost. 

Room 1506, Perfect 8. I heard the Cube-S speakers. WOW, again.  Sooo easy to listen to.  While they are small-ish in size, the soundstage is huge. Some speakers you have to listen to for a while with various music to decide whether you could live with them, or not.  The Cube-S, I listened to them for 5 minutes and was ready to take them home. Wonderful. 

Room 360, Aretai Contra 200.  I LOVE these speakers. This is another speaker, like just above, that I could take home with no additional audition time. I heard them played well in at the FL show.  Sadly, yesterday they played at about 60-65dB.  Far below a sound level where you could actually hear what they sound like. BIG disappointment. People walked in the room..nothing much happening here and left.  Unfortunate as they missed something really special. Hopefully this changes.

The three above are far-standouts from my visit. I managed to hit close to 100 rooms including the big systems on the 1st & second floor (that, honestly, don't do much for me..not because they are "unattainable", but they're just not engaging enough to want to listen to them more). I can stop in a room and listen for a minute and decide whether I'd like to hear more. Most setups, regardless of cost, while being technical marvels, don't make me want to sit down and soak it in. 

I got there shortly before noon friday and parking was already filled up! Got lucky and managed to parallel park my pickup in the only spot I could find. I never could find a pair of 801D4's or Blade 2 m to demo. A lot of subs turned up so loud it was difficult to judge speakers this year, I loved the JBL summit demo. Lines for elevators could be  pretty long so the stairwells were my friends.

I will be back again today. It's a different game this year, as I am (walk around wearing T-shirt and handing out business cards - LOL) promoting my new book (and company) The Audiophile Laws! I don't think Audiogon rules allow me to post a link here, but you can find the website easily enough. 

I am grateful that I had an opportunity to speak at the Masterclass Theater on Friday afternoon. I don't believe it's recorded, but it was pertaining to the book's content. 

Anyway, I concur with nogaps, the Ribbonacci by Altec Lansing once again is a standout. Last year, I was so impressed with that dipole that I wrote a brief article about it, which is published at Dagogo.com. I normally do not isolate one speaker for comment at shows, but the Ribbonacci is imo a phenomenon. I do not think I have heard a more profound dipole speaker.  I was in deep talks with Altec and the group of vendors at that room last year about reviewing those very speakers. The tough truth is that they are just too big for my room. Otherwise, you likely would have seen a review by now. I am hopeful they produce a shorter one, which would be tempting to review.

I also enjoyed the Axiss Audio's Accuphase and Gauder Akustic setup. I'm partial to Perlisten, trying not to be biased as I have reviewed some of their stuff for Dagogo.com and own the Perlisten D212s, but I thought their big rig with four of the HT subs was quite good. 

I found the MADO speakers with the Toolshed Amps setup to be intriguing, and the owner of Toolshed Amps lives a few minutes from me, so a new audio friend in my backyard, which is always a nice benefit of shows! The swiveling "Koupler" of the MADO speaker is an interesting feature. 

Plenty of ideas for future reviews! 

Just got back. Didn’t have as much time as I’d have liked - never do. There’s just too much. Still, I had a lot of fun and got to listen to most of what I wanted to. 

While I had fun in the big rooms and some were very good (and some were very not good IMO), I heard a few modest systems which impressed the hell out of me. Some of which I though would embarrass far more expensive systems. There’s hope for those that aspire to have a high quality, musically involving system but lack the resources for (or desire to invest in) a six and seven figure system. I think that’’s really encouraging for the future of our hobby.  

A couple of frustrations.

I left a room which otherwise sounded very good with gear i really wanted to hear - but the dealer decided to have a fairly loud conversation with someone which made it impossible to listen. It’s a show - I get it. But they coul have moved to a corner or to the hall, or kept it down. A couple minutes in I gave up.

I left the MBL room (and I love MBL) because it was loud enough to hurt my ears. So loud, I believe the amps were clipping. Seriously?

Room acoustics were frustrating a lot of exhibitors. As I have my own room challenges, I felt their pain. But some rooms were just way off. 

Network challenges abounded. The venue should ensure exhibitors have reasonable bandwidth or they should consider moving to a different location. The Varese System had regular dropouts while streaming. 

One exhibitor decided to only play tracks on their hard drive (to “best show the capabilities of their DAC”). At the six figure asking price, I get that the dealer will show up in my home with the gear, but shouldn’t a top level DAC show what it’s capable of on all music? This is relevant because I didn’t think what I heard was that great.

In sum - a good show with some terrific highlights and some not so terrific as well.

Best,

It did get frustrating for me also when I’d find a room I was looking for and the demonstrator would be lost in conversation about their favorite album or whatever. I really wanted to hear the latest VA beethovens and after several minutes of waiting I realized I was in the right place at the wrong time and I left. Bags end was a room with a teacher and students as were several others, Probably great for those disposed to school, not me and my 9th grade edu so I have no idea how those products sound and the demo did nothing to interest me.