Audio Advice Live 2026 ran from August 7 to 9 at the Sheraton Raleigh Hotel in North Carolina. Organised by specialist retailer Audio Advice, the fifth edition brought loudspeakers, electronics, projectors, televisions, turntables and headphones into one consumer-facing event.
The hotel held more than sixty listening and experience rooms, including over twelve Dolby Atmos home-theatre systems. Room-based demonstrations are the core of the show, allowing large loudspeakers and multichannel systems to be heard in complete installations rather than as static products on an open floor.
Participating brands included Bowers & Wilkins, KEF, JL Audio, McIntosh, Sonus faber, Marantz, JBL Synthesis, SVS, Klipsch and Kaleidescape. Visitors could move between two-channel and cinema systems while speaking directly with product managers and engineers.
Away from the listening rooms, the programme included expert deep-dive sessions, dedicated product showcases and panel discussions. Friday evening paired an industry keynote from Audio Advice chief executive Scott Newnam with a live concert at the nearby Lincoln Theatre.
Unlike a conventional exhibition built around brief stand visits, Audio Advice Live gives each participating company space to assemble a complete playback environment. That makes speaker scale, placement and system integration part of the comparison, not background details left for a later showroom visit.