It seems as though the Chicago-based audio show AXPONA 2026 is really settling in as the main focus for US HiFi events. The official press release from showrunners quoted “12,546 attendees, 235 Listening Rooms and 750 global manufacturers, retailers and brands present” and you could certainly feel the population density on Friday.
To put things simply, the first day of the show felt like a usual Saturday attendance. Rooms were filled and dialed in. The first floor (and second) held many audio delights, and is usually host to many of the big rooms with big speakers. Among the largest was a display at the end of the hallway on the far left side of the convention center, where Playback Distribution had subwoofer that was taller than your average man. At first I thought it was just a static display, but no, it was actually kicking out some very serious bass for the system.
Down the hallway housed many of the usual standouts including Joseph Audio with Doshi, Next Level HiFi with Borresen, Acora with VAC and Focal’s annual big room that includes outdoor, headphones and all manner of HiFi options. It was easy to say that it was my favorite collective hallway of the entire show.
AXPONA 2026 had a deep bench of new product launches, some were expected while others stood out as somewhat of a surprise to many. Magico used the show as the North American launch point for the new S7, a major floorstanding addition to its S Series. Pricing starts at about $135,000 per pair in Softec finish and rises to about $150,000 per pair in high gloss, with shipping expected in Q3 2026. ATC also came in at the statement level with the EL50 Anniversary Active, priced at $99,999 per pair. The EL50 is a limited-production active tower tied to ATC’s 50th anniversary, and its AXPONA showing reinforced the continued momentum behind fully active, manufacturer-controlled loudspeaker systems at the upper end of the market. Active speakers are becoming increasingly common in the high end, finding the matched pair of amp to transducer somewhat appealing to those who rely on more simplicity and less gear guesswork. Its almost a sign of trust in the designers that they might know what’s right, even more than the consumer with the mix-and-match mentality.
Andrew Jones’ new Jones & Cerreta Troubadour was another attention-getter at AXPONA 2026. Priced at $33,900 per pair, the Troubadour is a field-coil floorstanding loudspeaker and marks a new chapter for one of the industry’s most closely watched speaker designers. The line out the door was even more dense than ever. Making it hard to get into the room for a good listen. Those lucky enough to wait it out returned with some very solid impressions. The ambitious J&C project is far more high end than many of Jones latest projects, but still borrowed some of that mid century aesthetic that Andrew has been utilizing the past few years.
Coming back down to earth for the more common pocketbook, there were three standout highlights for those who like their speakers a little less than the cost of new car. Revel’s Performa4 series was one of the broader mass market launches. The new lineup spans roughly $2,000 to $7,000, with the flagship F346 floorstander listed at $6,999 per pair. The series includes floorstanders, bookshelf models, a center channel, and a powered subwoofer, making it one of the more complete new speaker-family introductions at the show. Paradigm also targeted the attainable high-performance space with the Premier Series v2, priced from $800 to $2,300 per pair. Chesky Audio revisited the LC2 standmount we saw at FLAX 2026 this year, priced at $1,995 per pair. With its compact form factor and 3D-printed cabinet approach, it was one of the more interesting affordable speakers hitting the market this year.
Other new or newly shown speaker launches included the Copenhagen Loudspeaker Company CLC 65 at $11,500, the Acora 5.2 at $44,000 in its standard tweeter configuration, and the Fyne Audio F1-12S at $52,000. SVS also launched the 3000 Micro R|Evolution subwoofer at $999.99, one of the more practical new bass products shown at AXPONA. Amplification launches were just as serious. Rogue Audio unveiled the M-250 Ultra monoblock tube amplifiers, priced at $18,995 per pair. These replace the Apollo Dark monoblocks and deliver 250 watts per channel from a fully tubed KT88-based design.
Constellation Audio used AXPONA 2026 to launch its Performance Series 2 electronics. The Performance 2 Stereo amplifier is priced at $59,000, while the matching Performance 2 Preamplifier is $49,000. The stereo amp is rated at 600 watts per channel into 8 ohms, and a monoblock version is also available.Dan D’Agostino’s Momentum Z monoblock was another cost-no-object amplifier launch circulating around the show. Published dealer pricing lists it at $125,000 per monoblock, making a stereo pair $250,000. Heaven 11 Audio showed the Billie Amp MK3 Classic at $2,995, paired with Buchardt Audio’s E50 speakers at $4,575 per pair. On the DAC side, Ideon Audio’s Axiom was the headline-grabber. The Axiom DAC was shown at $192,000 to $199,000, depending on source reporting, and uses a three-section architecture with separate power, clock/USB, and DAC-engine sections. It supports PCM up to 384kHz and native DSD up to 8x. Eversolo’s DAC-Z10 was a more accessible launch in the digital source category, listed at $1,980.
While there was a ton of new gear available at the show, there were a few old favorites that were available for a listen. Devore Fidelity brought their big flagship system back out to the circuit with the O/REF this time around. The MoFi Distribution room had a ton of their latest gear from Wharfedale, but also included the Andrew Jone’s MoFi Sourcepoint 888 and v10 floorstanding models.
If you want a visual run though of a huge cross-section of the rooms from AXPONA 2026, check out pt.AUDIO’s YouTube playlist from the show, and you can also check out all the in-person reactions direct from Brian Hunter and Marc Phillips in this week’s episode of The Occasional Podcast. Available in the embed below and on your favorite podcast platform including iTunes, Android, Google, Deezer, Spotify, iHeartRadio, YouTube and more.