AXPONA 2026

Getting to AXPONA 2026 is half the adventure. My direct flight from Bangor was canceled hours before departure, and the airline routed me through Philadelphia. Somewhere between home and gate, I lost one of my brand-new AirPods—not both, just one, which is somehow more annoying.

When Stereophile editor Jim Austin, en route himself, texted to ask if I was "planed" (don't try this at home—we journalists are trained professionals who can turn any noun into a verb), my phone's auto reply responded with the standard "I'm driving" message, probably because I was sprinting through the terminal at speeds belying my aging knees.

"Driving!" Jim texted. "Yes," I texted back. I sent him a Google Maps screenshot of the Bangor-to-Schaumburg highway route. Seventeen hours, thirty-nine minutes, it said.

"You're not," he responded. It wasn't hard to find a photo of a dark highway with a sign for Interstate 81 and the city of Syracuse. Jim was impressed. Or shocked. Or both. "Wow. Safe travels."

Delays bring out the worst in me.

After picking me up at O’Hare, my Uber driver learned I was a journalist covering the show. With the unshakeable confidence of a man who has put two and two together and gotten three, he inquired whether exhibitors pay me under the table for positive coverage. "Of course not," I sniffed. When I got out, he wished me a happy AXPONA. "Enjoy the show. Maybe you'll get a free pair of speakers out of it."

No tip for you, friend.

A minute later, I was standing in the lobby. To my delight, the brand new, pre-production Dutch & Dutch 15c speakers were playing—hulking, slightly comical on their stands, as if someone had run a normal bookshelf speaker through an enlargement machine set to 10x. I smiled. Despite the low volume—it was midnight, after all—they also sounded enormous. It was a good sign of things to come.

Jim was glad to see me in the elevator this morning (footnote 1).

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Footnote 1: Yes, he was.—Jim Austin