Thursday was the trade-only day at Axpona, held at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. Many of the exhibitor rooms are situated around a lovely, inviting pool. I arrived in Atlanta at around 2pm, thrilled to see sunshine and feel warm, southern air on my skin. The staff at the Sheraton immediately struck me as being just as warm, eager to help and genuinely happy just to smile and say hello.

Thursday’s show activity was limited to system setup, however&#151many exhibitors had been up till the very early hours of morning, unpacking boxes and crates which had arrived only a few hours earlier. It must be tremendously tough to unpack gear and set up a system after a long day of travel. Some exhibitors told me they’d stayed up until 4am, preparing and tweaking to achieve the best possible sound.

Judging from what I heard today, on the first full day of the show, they did an outstanding job.

Oh, damn: Record Store Day is this Saturday, April 16th, and I won’t be able to participate. I’ll be in Atlanta, covering Axpona, but, if you’re free, you should definitely make a trip to your local independent record store and enjoy the festivities. As we all know, many record stores have shut their doors in recent years&#151for proof, take a look at this collection of sad and beautiful images&#151but, as some of the larger chains have faded away, many smaller shops have opened up, catering to specific tastes and genres of music, making the experience of record shopping even more personal, friendly, and satisfying.

It's asked all the time, wherever audiophiles gather to grumble: "Everybody knows about Ferrari, Rolex, and Leica. But why hasn't anyone heard of . . ."

The last word is up for grabs: Wilson? Levinson? Linn? Maybe. But for me, whenever I'm in pissing-and-moaning mode, the choice is easy: Why hasn't the average consumer heard of the Audio Note Ongaku?