AXPONA 2022

The crowds rushed in on day 2. It was good to see pent up show demand express itself though it was still a somewhat tentative affair, with many no-show companies and retailers. Traffic was lighter on Sunday, which is normal. It's impossible for one person (me) to cover an entire show, even in 3 days and I ended up missing a few rooms with turntables and a few other rooms I'd meant to see. Fortunately Stereophile sent a full crew with specific assignments so please visit there for detailed show coverage especially non-turntable related.

Even though vinyl is a significant driver in the audiophile world, the number of turntables on display was lower than expected and they didn't frame any "main events". That made finding new turntables on display "hit or miss" and I missed a few in rooms not identified as "analog carriers".

I'd like to see something at AXPONA I once saw in Europe: a large room with almost every major manufacturer displaying an "active" turntable. In real time attendees got to hear the same recording on each of the turntables played through a high quality audio system. It was instructive!

My Saturday began with breakfast with Mo-Fi distribution's Norbert Schmied and veteran turntable designer Allen Perkins who showed me a prototype of a new arm to be introduced by Mo-Fi at Munich High End on a new top of the line turntable the company hopes to retail for around $6000. Unfortunately, photos were not permitted. Saturday afternoon I conducted a well-attended turntable set-up seminar.

I used a Power Vision S1 gimbal to shoot videos on days 2 and 3 and the results were a mixed bag as I'm still learning. Hopefully my skills will improve over time. By Sunday afternoon it was a "rush job" to visit the remaining rooms and some of the video coverage shows it. In too many other rooms no one was there to walk me (or consumers) through their offerings. Rooms should never be left basically unattended! Other rooms had both no one on duty and poor or no signage. What a waste! You'll know the rooms where someone was there to greet journalists and attendees and where thee was not.

On Stereophile's site, Jason Victor Serinus reports the numbers: 7498 unique visitors, plus 98 members of the press, 138 active exhibit rooms, and a large number of Ear Gear and marketplace exhibits. Decent numbers but considering the population of Chicago and vicinity, next year iit needs to break 10,000 attendees!

Seeing old friends and meeting new ones, and seeing and hearing what busy manufacturers have been up to was the main event, though most product debuts will be in Munich later this month. At the show I got to meet two contributing writers: Joseph Washek and Michael Lesser Johnson. It's nice to be able to connect a face and a person to a name! In a world dimmed by war, domestic political instability and the rest, hi-fi and of course music, which is the main event, provide some respite so enjoy! I wish AXPONA show dates didn't collide every year with Record Store Day.