AXPONA 2025

The largest and most important audio show in the United States, AXPONA, is poised to open in the greater Chicago area’s sprawling Schaumburg Renaissance Hotel & Convention Center. Well before the three-day show opens on Friday, April 11 at 10am, you can expect scores of eager attendees lining up at the long registration desk in the Convention Center lobby.

Why? In addition to hopes for a first crack at rare vinyl, attendees will be vying for a prime listening spot in a record 213 listening rooms. That’s eight more than last year, spread across eight floors in multiple areas. Also bigger than ever is the Ear Gear Experience, now encompassing a mind-boggling 3720 square feet.

New this year is the Car Audio Experience, with five exhibitors and over 20 cars on display. For those new to the ride, as well as those on a budget, there’s a new “Affordable Audio Room” on the hotel’s seventh floor. Curated by Lenny Florentine, the room includes equipment from 13 brands.

How exhibitors are feeling as they scurry about doing setup depends on a host of factors. Although matters could change by the time you read this, continuing and potentially escalating taxes on China are not bringing joy to companies, distributors, and dealers with goods manufactured in China or dependent upon Chinese-made parts. Some have vowed to hold the line, even if it means lower margins**; ie** profits. But others are in no position to do so. It’s fair to say that those with large inventories may be able to ride the wave, as it were. But exactly when that wave will break, and how off course it may take our industry, remains to be seen.

Regardless, music remains the vital force that brings us together. Our intrepid team of Jim Austin, Mark Henninger, Ken Micallef, Julie Mullins, et moi—with Mike Mettler doing the honors for Analog Planet and Rogier van Bakel and John Atkinson helping out from afar—is poised to open our collective ears, eyes, notepads, and lenses wide to cover many of the premieres and most outstanding displays. There’s lots more to come to these pages over the next week or two.