AXPONA 2026

Chicagoland megadealer Quintessence Audio Ltd. tends to set up shop under and around the main escalator banks at the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Convention Center, the host site for AXPONA — and their M.O. at AXPONA 2026 was no different. Besides a pair of open-air Vestibule systems, Quintessence’s three active demo rooms — duly dubbed Connection, Knowledge, and Perfection — housed top-tier high-end systems comprised of fine analog and digital gear alike.

We’ll have much more on the analog side of what we saw and heard in those Quintessence setups in future AXPONA 2026 reports, but this post is chiefly about what happened a little after 2:00p.m. CST on Friday, April 10, when I made my way into a very much packed Knowledge room in order to hear Acoustic Sounds head honcho Chad Kassem spin around an hour’s worth of handpicked vinyl selections on the quite formidable Döhmann Helix One Mk III turntable that ruled the row of sleek racked gear along the right sidewall.

The $150K Helix One Mk III was fitted with Wilson Benesch Graviton Ti and Supatrac Nighthawk (12in) tonearms, with the respective Wilson Benesch Tessellate Diamond (MC) and DS Audio Grand Master EX cartridges. An Audio Research Ref 10 handled the phono preamp duties, while Wilson Audio XVX speakers performed exactly how you’d expect $464K Wilsons to perform in systems of this nature. (See the Equipment list at the end of this post for the entirety of the Knowledge room’s gear array and the respective SRPs, all of which was confirmed with me directly by Garth Leerer, president of Musical Surroundings Inc. Leerer also provided a link to the balance of the “hero” photos seen here, which were taken by Aki Aoyagi of DS Audio. The other, “in-session” shots are by yours truly.)

Kassem’s first selection was the world debut of the soon-forthcoming UHQR edition of ZZ Top’s seminal July 1973 masterpiece, Tres Hombres, which is scheduled for impending release on April 24, 2026. “Very little mastering” was needed, Kassem explained, given how good the source material was — and the album’s linchpin track “La Grange” was the proof for why hearing all of this LP at 45rpm will be a bonafide treat. Frank Beard’s insistent rim taps were taut and clear, the various volume swells throughout the track as it repeatedly shifted gears held their ground (lesser pressings can’t entirely hold fort), and Billy Gibbons’ breakneck guitar solo squeals had all the character and fire his ever-nimble fingers gave ’em in the first place. Given that Gibbons told Kassem & Co. that he didn’t even need to hear any test pressings or playback of the finished Tres Hombres UHQR beforehand because, quote, “I trust you” — well, that tells ya plenty, right there. (You know what I’m talkin’ ’bout.)

From there, Kassem culled other choice cuts from the company’s 40th Anniversary Series, including multiple selections from Van Morrison, whose extended “a” on the word “understa-a-a-a-nd” in “I’ll Be Your Lover, Too” from his November 1970 LP His Band and the Street Choir carried all the emotion of the original (if not more so), in addition to a cut from John David Souther’s 1976 LP Black Rose (a.k.a. J.D. Souther, that is). He also sneak-previewed some live selections by the likes of Tony Joe White and guitar firebrand Tab Benoit that were cut at the company’s Salina, Kansas, church locale, something which we’ll discuss in more depth at a later date.

In short, Knowledge is power, and the Döhmann-led system during this Quintessential session — which admittedly had its own set of challenges to grapple with from time to time — ultimately made its high-end case.