AXPONA 2026

BY: ERIC BAINES (TSE VP OPERATIONS)

Todd, Zach, and I left Omaha with excitement, intrigue, and maybe a fool’s hope as we pushed off for Chicago to attend this year’s Audio Expo North America, better known as AXPONA. On arrival, our excitement quickly morphed into confusion, disappointment, and eventually fatigue.

Upon entry, you look up at the hotel’s atrium levels and see Industry folks shaking hands and talking business, while local enthusiasts and those who have taken an audiophile pilgrimage from afar move from room to room and floor to floor like ants tending to their colony. The visible atrium levels are only a portion of the available rooms; the top five floors are also jam-packed. With that in mind, and after large amounts of coffee and tea, we journeyed to the top floor to work our way down throughout the day.

The confusion set in early, as we encountered room after room of sound that was incongruous with the sounds of real music. And if sounding bad wasn’t enough, it was also LOUD. Much louder than would be appropriate for the respective recordings, and in many cases louder than the instruments (if acoustic) are even capable of. We often found ourselves asking the operator to turn the volume down so that we could actually hear the system. We are very happy with the lines we represent, but we are always looking for lines that can compete for a place in our showrooms. So, we still approached each room with an open mind.

Through the confusion and noise, reprieve did come in a few of our partners’ rooms. They were able to combine excellent components with proper execution to achieve a sound that felt more at home to us and was very fun to listen to. In particular, we felt manufacturers such as Rockport Technologies, Wilson Audio, dCS, Aurender, and Innuos were well represented. One of the fun parts for us is getting to see the wonderful people behind these companies in the flesh rather than via email or phone. That part is a good time and usually informative about what they have coming up.

We have a path to the level of music reproduction we achieve. While the path has remained consistent, we are always learning and instituting new ways to improve our systems. As our systems get better, so do our clients’ systems. As we navigated the rooms, we were continually disappointed to see proudly displayed stacks of very expensive components sound so non-musical and disengaging. Value is very important to us. Unfortunately, just because a component is expensive does not mean that it is good. We are committed to finding and representing high-value components at every price level.

Finally, by the end of the days we attended, fatigue set in, both in our feet and our ears, as we heard too many noisy systems played quite loudly. We found ourselves at the hotel bar, going over all the systems we had experienced, commiserating over the same feelings of disappointment, but also some feelings of vindication because of the level of effort and execution we put into creating systems for our clients that are worth the money, musical, and enjoyable. AXPONA confirmed we have a strong path to successful systems and renewed our energy and passion to keep pushing and innovating as we move forward.

Have a look at the photo gallery below showing some of what we saw and heard.