Event Schedule

Kick off your AXPONA experience by networking with manufacturers, dealers, distributors and press. This exclusive reception is for members of the trade to network, make connections and set meetings for the next three days.

The reception is open to registered exhibitors staff, Media, and Industry Pass Holders.

Speakers: Matthew Poes & Kalman Rubinson

Speaker: Jakob Agren, Director of Product Management

Speaker: Rick Schultz , CEO/Inventor High Fidelity Cables/ Magnetic Innovations

Speaker: Isaac Markowitz, Ambassador for Aspirational Audio

Speaker: Siegfried Amft, CEO and Founder, T+A Elektroakustik

Leaders from some of the top companies in our industry discuss the next generation in HiFi. What trends are leading changes in consumer demand? How do we reach the next generation of audio enthusiasts? What must companies do to adapt and what does that mean for consumers?

Speaker: EveAnna Manley, President, Manley Labs

Speaker: J.R. Boisclair, Managing Partner, WallyTools Analog Setup Tools

Speaker: Rick Schultz , CEO/Inventor High Fidelity Cables/ Magnetic Innovations

Sponsor:

Sound and Lighting sponsor: 

Chicago bluesman Toronzo Cannon defies all expectations. The blistering guitarist, soulful vocalist, singular songwriter and city bus driver fuses his muscular, rock-inspired blues guitar playing with his original, keenly detailed slice-of-life songs, blazing his own blues trail. With the 2016 release of his Alligator Records debut, The Chicago Way, Cannon burst onto the international stage as one the most electrifying bluesmen to emerge from Chicago in decades.

“Cannon is at the front rank of Chicago bluesmen. He creates wide-screen modern arrangements for wry, thoughtful songs, molding an ensemble sound that’s both tempestuous and scrupulously controlled.” –MOJO

Cannon bought his first guitar at age 22, and his natural talent enabled him to quickly master the instrument. Although his initial focus was reggae, he found himself increasingly drawn to the blues. “It was dormant in me. But when I started playing the blues, I found my voice and the blues came pouring out.” He absorbed sounds, styles and licks from Buddy Guy, Albert Collins, Hound Dog Taylor, B.B. King, Albert King, Freddie King, Jimi Hendrix, J.B. Hutto, Lil’ Ed and others. Although influenced by many, Cannon’s biting, stinging guitar sound is all his own.

Cannon is part of the post-'80s generation that is just as much influenced by rock as the blues. Where he separates with the rest of that pack is that Cannon puts the song ahead of the solo. —Chicago Tribune

Learn more about Toronzo Cannon here: https://toronzocannon.com/

Speaker: Dan Wiggins, President, Periodic Audio

If either of these amplifiers is RIGHT . . . the other must be WRONG," read the main cover line on the January 1994 and January 2019 issues of Stereophile. In both magazines, a low-power, single-ended tube amplifier with high distortion and a thoroughly modern, high-power, solid-state amplifier with vanishingly low distortion had been given glowing reviews. But was that because of their measured performance or despite it? In this seminar, moderated by Stereophile technical Editor John Atkinson, a panel of pedigreed amplifier designers debate what matters most when it comes to amplifier sound quality.

This will be a panel seminar hosted by Rafe Arnott, featuring himself, Scot Hull of Part-time Audiophile, Mark Sossa of Well Pleased AV and  John Quick of dCS Americas in a fun, Question-and-Answer type of panel discussion on a wide-range of audiophile topics within the digital audio realm.

Sections will include, but not be limited to:

Wired vs wireless – positives/negatives (tuning/flavour).

State of Wireless/future of wireless (codecs, bandwidth, cloud-based Internet services, consumer/manufacturer buy-in).

Future of cable manufacturers in a wireless world (wireless charging, battery power supplies, “true wireless” hardware configurations, etc.) Will balanced or unbalanced connections matter in 20 years?

Digital benchmark for state of the art vs analog benchmarks: Why the undigitized sound wave is still king.

Why streaming audio is the fastest-growing segment of the hobby (cost factor, playback mode, experiential nature, convenience, ubiquity).

The new paradigm of streaming music vs download model: Why buy when you can rent? Is there a future for download services, and who polices where downloads are sourced? 

Are the CD’s days numbered in a streaming-music world?

Setting up a network-based home audiophile system. can anyone do it? What do you need today for the most basic set up?

Speaker: Joe "Joe N Tell" Mariano, Digital Content Creator & Audio "Reviewer"

Review of various cleaning methods and results and how record composition and release agent comes into play.

Speaker: Charles Kirmuss, Founder, CEO, Kirmus Audio

Speaker: Ron Hoering, CEO, Auranas

Speaker: Siegfried Amft, CEO and Founder, T+A Elektroakustik

Speaker: Greg Stidsen, Chief Technology Officer, Lenbrook International

Speaker: Isaac Markowitz, Ambassador for Aspirational Audio

Speaker: Rick Schultz , CEO/Inventor High Fidelity Cables/ Magnetic Innovations

Sponsor: 

Sound and Lighting sponsor:

RICKIE LEE JONES has spent a life time dancing with her muse. She is the most iconic American female singer-songwriter of her time, a woman who outlasted all her adversaries--including youth and self-destruction. A seasoned humility brings her performances an authenticity that only long-enduring musicians achieve. Her artistry is brilliantly underlined with her 2019 album KICKS. The album spans two decades (50s-70s) of pop, rock and jazz, presenting her unique and sophisticated interpretations of songs that were pivotal to her musical journey. 

By the time she was 19, JONES was living in Los Angeles, waiting tables and occasionally playing music in out of the way coffee houses and bars. All the while, she was developing her unique aesthetic: music that was sometimes spoken, often beautifully sung, and while emotionally accessible, she was writing lyrics as taut and complex as any by the great American poet, Elizabeth Bishop. In JONES’ voice and songs, we saw smoky stocking seams, love being everything but requited. And it was during these years that RICKIE LEE’s song, "Easy Money," caught the attention of one musician and then the music industry. The song was recorded by Lowell George, the founder of the band, Little Feat. He used it on his solo album, Thanks, I’ll Eat It Here. Shortly thereafter, Warner Brothers auditioned JONES and quickly signed her to the label.

Join us Saturday evening with this Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, which will demand you stop and pay attention to favorites and deep cuts that span pop, jazz, standards, and rock.  

For more on Rickie Lee Jones visit here: www.rickieleejones.com

Speaker: Cas Oostvogel, NAD Product Manager, Lenbrook International

Music guru Thomas Mulready continues his AXPONA presentations (David Bowie in 2018; The Beatles in 2019), digging up the roots of the most revolutionary popular music of the late 20th Century. The Birth of Punk traces the early influences on punk progenitors in the most unlikely of locales. PunkShows.us

Speaker: Thomas Mulready

Join us for a deep dive into one of the most talked-about new amplification technologies, Eigentakt, and learn how this technology eliminates distortion and how it compares to other amplifier designs.

Speaker: Greg Stidsen, Chief Technology Officer, Lenbrook International

Speaker: Rick Schultz , CEO/Inventor High Fidelity Cables/ Magnetic Innovations