Chicago’s AXPONA, Here We Come! – AXPONA 2016

AXPONA is one of my favorite shows and Chicago is one of my favorite cities. Chi-Town is probably one of the best collections in the world of good eats, drinks and places to merry-make.

The AXPONA show is as big as the city it lives in. The event’s personal audio section dubbed Ear Gear Expo is twice the size as last year and the loudspeaker rooms total over 110 opportunities to tickle your ears.

New product launches include the new ALTAIR Digital Analog Converter ($1899) from Auralic, which looks to be a tasty combination of their well received VEGA DAC and and ARIES music streamer.

The new streamer/DAC includes a whopping 15 possible input sources, from the press release: Streaming Inputs: Network Shared Folder (NAS), USB drive, Internal music storage (optional), uPnP/DLNA media server, TIDAL and Qobuz streaming, Internet Radio, AirPlay, Bluetooth, Songcast and RoonReady; Digital Inputs: AES/EBU, Coaxial, Toslink, USB device to computer, 2 USB host for storage and DAC, RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11b/g/n/ac Tri-Band WiFi.

It will be live in room 304 at the show if you want to hear the device in person.

The list of new products making their debut at the show is quite extensive, you can check out all the new gear that will be on display on AXPONA’s site here: [http://axpona.com/newproducts.asp]

Attendees will also be able to check out some big recent releases in personal audio that we saw at CanJam SoCal including the [Modwright Tryst] and Cavalli’s new [Tungsten Prototype]. Local manufacturer Shure will also be making its first appearance at an audio show outside of the big CES and NAMM conventions.

Those feeling lucky or looking for a good deal will be equally #blessed. A list of all show specials and giveaways are conveniently located here: [http://axpona.com/expofeatures.asp]

Highlights include 20% off all Audioengine gear, 10% off Benchmark purchases plus a DAC2 L giveaway (NICE), Echobox Finder X1 giveaway, RIVA Turbo X and S bluetooth speaker giveaway and 10% off Woo Demo gear.

Of course, killer flagship loudspeakers are without a doubt a massive draw at shows like this. We will be posting coverage of all the huge pretty things as the show rolls out so stay tuned to the site and our social media channels for the very best of high end of audio.