AXPONA 2017 Protocol

Great question. The speakers I'm looking at are as follows:
PSB T3
Spendor D7/D9
Endeavor 3 MkII
Joseph Audio Perspective
Marten Django XL
Monitor Audio PL300 II
I currently own PSB Imagine T. I like them, but it is time to move up. I listened to PSB T3 and Vandersteen Treos at Audio Concepts in Dallas using all the same gear. I much preferred the PSB T3. I spoke with Galen Carol, a Bluebird Music rep in San Antonio, regarding the Spendor D7/D9. I arranged to listen to them, but he sold them the week I was to hear them. BTW Galen is a great guy and I'm hoping he and I run into each other at AXPONA. Anyway, from the AXPONA Exhibitors List it appears all these speakers should be present in Chicago.

Most vendors will allow you to play your own music, some will even encourage it. I suggest you talk to to one of the people working the room when you first come in to see if they are amenable to this.  Saturday will be the busiest day, so you may have a tough time to get your music played in the busy rooms.  Perhaps it's too late or not worth it for one day, but the VIP pass allows you an hour of pre-show listening where there will be fewer people in the room.  I've not used this option so I don't have any experience with it, but to get a good listen it might help.  No way you can listen to all of those speakers in one hour on Saturday morning though.  Another option is to ask in a particular room if they will let you come back at the end of the day and listen after the show closes, As for buying at the show, some direct selling vendors will have "show" prices, but for the most part it's a demonstration atmosphere.  Quite often a local dealer is involved, but unless you are also local buying will be hit or miss.  Never hurts to ask though!

I could be wrong, but this year the gold pass does not seem to include an extra hour in the rooms. In my experience, while the traffic is lighter Friday, especially after noon, the rooms commonly sound the worst at the start and improve over the weekend. And by "worst" I mean sometimes uselessly bad. Also these days visitors more commonly rely on the large banks of music the vendors have on hard drives for audition rather than plug in their own music. It is not impolite to ask, certainly.

The MBL demo at AXPONA is popular for good reason, even if you'd never want to look at those loudspeakers for one minute in your own home.  On the other hand, the Marten Coltrane loudspeaker demo was phenomenal.  Expensive, but worth a listen.  The big Wilson room was in a room that was . . . big.  Awesome sound, but for prairie-sized listening spaces.  Last year, a few rooms played R2R tape. You know, the stuff that sounds great but that you'll probably never listen to at your place. Gotta remember that it's about the music that works for you and the musical media to which you have real world access.

Real world demo excellence at AXPONA 2016 (IMO): Bryston, Gershmann speakers, Vandersteen, Harbeth, Salk, McIntosh.  Lots of others. It's an excellent show.

Do bring the music you want to hear.  Try not to be discouraged by the poor musical taste demonstrated by some convention attendees.  Run the other way if you hear movie soundtracks!

Analog: beware many (not all) vendors also have terrible taste in LP selection. Way too many "audiophile" spectacular disks.  Let's be honest: no one really likes to hear those at home.  Bring along a few LPs that you'd be willing to hear in a demo.

As much as I agree that you should bring some music,  you must also be ready for some real disappointment... Most of these rooms will be very busy,  some will be hard to get into.... Make it clear that you are in the market to purchase and "This is on my Short List".... that may help, but I suspect that quite often (not always) you won't get your music selection played.  Good Luck,  Tim