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

@hilde45, One of OCD Mikey's videos caught me at the right time in my hifi journey a number of years ago. I was in the exact spot he was speaking about regarding having nice gear that sounded like turds. I was frustrated and unsure how to fix what was wrong in my rig. I called him and we spoke for about two hours. He's very consultative and is awesome to work with! We've had many long conversations and hung out in Atlanta and Chicago at AXPONA last year. I consider him a good friend.

I did have "things go wrong" with the first pair of used mono blocks I bought from him. I can tell you that he went beyond what good dealer would have done to make things right! I got FULL credit for the used amps after two years of playing them, PLUS an incredible deal on my new monos, the NAT Audio Magma M HPS. They are beyond amazing!

Re: OCD Mikey 

You can’t find a better guy to buy from .

Great solid guy to work with 

Goes above and beyond 

The customer experience -satisfaction was his priority in the 3 things I’ve purchased from him.

These days having a dealer tell you that you would be making a mistake buying something is refreshing .

Based in my experiences with him he is my 1st choice to buy from ..without a doubt.

Got no issues with those that are polarized by his comments ...that’s their right ..but when it comes to the real stuff of actually buying something from him he’s top notch

LOL.

The shows are a great place to engage with the customers. I had a customer  visit us for three years straight at Axpona In the 4th year he brought a full loom of cables and now he is considering our Amp or a streamer. I enjoy it. It allows the buyer to understand our technology our products and what we do.  Great place to also discover new music and fellowship with audiophiles. 

If the statement made that "AXPONA should be only for dealers and that the rest of us are stupid", is what was actually said - that’s enough to ignore and avoid such a negative and self-serving person directing you only to what he sells. Good grief.  

Industry reflection - 

Think back, 3-4 years ago coming out of the pandemic, there were so many multi-generation audiophiles sharing worry the next generation of earbud and headphone kids had no interest in home audio systems, and lots of banter about how the industry was not likely to survive and thrive. The Axpona show indicates otherwise.

Since I could not attend Axpona in person, being able to watch several videos of reviewers and attendees was refreshing to see just how many NEW components, speakers, so many new/different amplifiers is quite reconfirming to see. Promoters, distributors, dealers, all spent a good deal of time, money, energy to make all of it accessible to attendees to see in person.  How cool is that! 

They should be commended and supported for that.  Someone talking crap about it all is not worth wasting time with. Imo, its fantastic having one place to go to and see it all in person over a few days.  We are lucky to have the experience.