The time has come to eloquently slide into show season. After winter CES break, things start to pick up with AXPONA in the midwest before launching into all the west coast summertime fun proceeded by a colorful fall in Colorado with RMAF. Squeeze in a little international travel to Munich in-between and you have yourself enough press releases to fill the atrium pool from T.H.E. Show Newport circa 2014.
For AXPONA its even bigger and better this year. With a recent location upgrade to the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Convention Center, things are well primed for expansion and even higher public attendance. With 162 two channel rooms sold in and a full-on expo hall (the convention center bit) there will be plenty to take in over the 3 days of sonic sharing in mid April. Its not unusual for manufacturers to hold a product launch until a signifiant event takes place, and AXPONA will be the site for a few unveils as well this year.
Look for a slew of AVM Audio product demos before their official release in May as well as open baffle powered sub debut from Emerald Physics ($9,800). Exogal is also showcasing a new streamer called the Vortex ahead of its late April street date. Another big speaker debut comes from Magico, in the form of a 3-way, four driver floor stander called the A3 ($9.8k) along with the second generation portable deepblue system from Peachtree called deepblueSKY ($499).
PS Audio will also be showing off a new update to its budget-friendly pre/DAC/head amp Sprout, now with double the power and remote included for $599. Although the first peek on US soil took place at CES, fans of Technics will also get a chance to hear the new SP-10R/SL-1000R Reference table ahead of its official release in late spring/early summer this year ($10k-18k).
You can find all this and more in the new releases section on the AXPONA site, neatly organized for new products and even discounts/giveaways. We would be remiss to mention our favorite giveaway from nearly every show: a lovely $1,700 DAC from everyone’s friends at Benchmark. Best freebie/discount award will have to go to JH Audio this year with 15% off IEMs, free on-site cleaning/impressions and a chance to win a set of Roxanne Universals.
You can even hear more directly from AXPONA show runner Liz Miller on this week’s episode of The Occasional Podcast, also featuring an interview with Sandy Gross from GoldenEar Technologies. Check out the weekly audiophile series on iTunes, Android, or Google Play Store.