Southwest Audio Fest 2026 Day Two — High-End Rooms, Rare Designs, & High-Fidelity Audiophile Highlights
A deep dive into Classic Audio, Perfect8, Grandinote, Rockport, Boulder, Decibel+, Infigo, LTA, Prodigo, and Van Zyl at SWAF 2026.
Southwest Audio Fest 2026 Show Report By Paul Schumann

  Friday, day two at the Southwest Audio Fest 2026, brought a noticeable shift in energy as attendees settled into the rhythm of the show and the larger rooms began drawing steady crowds. With the big exhibit rooms on the second and fourth floors fully activated, today felt expansive—full of ambitious system setups, bold design choices, and exhibitors eager to demonstrate what their gear could really do. The mood was equal parts curiosity and excitement, with listeners moving from room to room comparing sonic signatures, discussing new technologies, and reconnecting with familiar faces from past shows. As the halls grew busier, it became clear that Friday had become the unofficial "deep-listening" day, where visitors took their time exploring the more elaborate systems on display.

Throughout the Dallas hotel, Friday also revealed the show's growing diversity in both presentation styles and audio philosophies. Some rooms leaned into minimalist purity, others embraced dramatic visual flair, and still others focused on immersive, full-scale system builds meant to showcase the limits of high-fidelity performance. Conversations spilled out into the corridors as enthusiasts debated their favorite rooms, swapped recommendations, and planned which systems to revisit on Saturday. By late afternoon Friday, the buzz of shared discovery made the Sheraton feel alive with audiophile energy, setting the stage for an even more exciting weekend ahead.

Classic Audio was back with their impressive horn speakers. They were one of several vendors who were playing reel-to-reel tapes.

Audio Thesis was another vendor with a minimalist system. Thiers' consisted of a hARt Lab Tune Six Integrated Amplifier connected to rossofiorentino PISA speakers.

One of this year's winners of the I've-never-seen-that-before contest must go to the loudspeakers produced by Perfect8. Using glass as the material for your speaker cabinets is a bold choice both acoustically and aesthetically. From what I briefly heard, they may be on to something.

There was a time when multiple driver arrays were all the rage in high-end speaker design. Grandinote is reviving this approach. Their Mach 8 loudspeakers have eight woofers and one tweeter. These will deserve further investigation.

The Reference Audio room was impressive with its pairing of Rockport Technologies Orion speakers, Boulder Amplifier electronics, and a Dohmann Audio turntable. It was really busy when I visited, so I'll hurry down there first thing tomorrow morning to get a better listen.

If you are a wood devotee, you will love the Decibel+ room. It was loaded with sound treatments from the Acoustic Grove System, turning the listening room into some sort of Nordic temple. Nestled between the AGS items were a pair of Atlantis AT16 speakers, a Neoson Genese amplifier, and an AUDIOBYTE SuperVOX DAC. Not only did it look cool, but it also sounded great.

I had to throw in a picture of the Infigo electronics from the Daedalus room. The flashing blue LEDs were hypnotic!

The Spiritual Sound room was striking, the combination of Linear Tube Audio gear and Prodigo Sicambria speakers. The amount of bass this system produced had me looking for a non-existent subwoofer.

Van Zyl Audio keeps coming up with new horn loudspeakers. The Equiem Horns shown are brand new and very intriguing. They definitely will need another listen.

Well, it's getting late, and I need to send this stuff to webmaster Steven R. Rochlin so he can get some sleep tonight ("Ummm, what is this thing you call sleep?" – Steven ;) ). My full show reports will be coming soon!

---> Back to the main SWAF 2026 luxury hi-fi show report homepage.