If we call the Audio Video Show a consumer show, we mean it quite literally: men and women, young and old, middle-aged visitors and children—all of them happily milling about the hotel rooms and stadium corridors, and all of them having just as much fun.
We knew we would have our hands full. With 196 rooms now in play, AVS 2026 was once again bigger than ever. What began as a hobby project by Adam Mokrzycki during his university days has grown into one of the largest shows of its kind anywhere in the world. We therefore arrived as a team of four, determined to cover as much of the sprawling spectacle as possible.
There was certainly plenty to cover. As usual, the Audio Video Show was spread across two hotels and a soccer stadium. The main venue was the Radisson Blu Sobieski, conveniently located near Warsaw Central Station. As at any hotel-based audio show, the hotel rooms presented a considerable acoustic challenge. Some exhibitors coped with it only moderately well, but many others managed it surprisingly—and gratifyingly—successfully.
Nominally located diagonally across the intersection, though in reality a good 15-minute walk around Artura Zawiszy Square, the Golden Tulip served as a smaller but delightful satellite venue, with its handful of spacious conference rooms. The third, and arguably most exciting, location was PGE Narodowy Stadium. You could get there on the shuttle bus, which ran every half hour, or simply walk. The trek takes about an hour, but the route is straightforward: just keep following Aleje Jerozolimskie, and it is practically impossible to miss your destination. If you fancy a break along the way, there is no shortage of cafés and restaurants where you can stop for a breather.
The venues were, in a sense, organized along thematic lines. At the Radisson in particular, most of the rooms were occupied not by industry heavyweights but by manufacturers ranging from moderately obscure to virtually unknown. Major brands such as Audio Note, Esoteric, and Marantz were certainly present, but the lion’s share of the space went to small and very small manufacturers. Among them, even names familiar mainly to audiophile insiders, such as Aretai and Kuzma, tended to come across as positively mainstream.
The selection was rounded out by a generous helping of homegrown Polish talent. Lampizator, for example, powered systems in numerous rooms, while other well-established names in the Polish scene, including Ancient Audio and Tentogra, were also represented in force.
This year, the shock of the unusual was not quite as intense as in previous years. For one thing, we had by now a pretty good idea of what to expect. For another, we had to admit, with some disappointment, that although there were still plenty of brands none of us had ever heard of, the exuberant—and occasionally endearingly unprofessional—spirit of experimentation had faded somewhat.
Still, the DIYaudio.pl room offered the usual impressive display of engineering ingenuity, delivered with the customary openness and good humor. Its creators were as happy as ever to acknowledge, with a wink and a smile, that their creations were still prototypes.
Unlike the upper floors of the Radisson, the ground floor had a rather different character. Established Polish favorites such as Pylon and Fezz were joined by high-end heavyweights including Audio Group Denmark and Raidho, all commanding generously sized rooms and prominent positions.
Most of the really big names, however, had gathered at PGE Narodowy Stadium. Its spacious VIP suites provided an appropriately grand setting for the imposing systems from McIntosh, Bowers & Wilkins, JBL, and a host of other manufacturers, some relatively obscure but no less exclusive.
The high-end legends were joined, quite naturally, by consumer and lifestyle brands such as Denon, Onkyo, Kanto, Sonoro, Sonos, Devialet, and Bang & Olufsen, among many others. The major players in the middle of the hi-fi market were equally well represented. From Polish manufacturers such as Taga Harmony and Unitra to Triangle, DALI, PMC, and Innuos, virtually every name worth knowing had made the trip.
Although children occasionally darted around the Radisson, and mixed groups of men and women in their twenties and thirties could be spotted in its corridors, the sheer diversity of the crowd was most striking at the stadium. Families with kids in tow, clusters of teenagers, well-heeled ladies and gentlemen—all mingled quite naturally, side by side. And this was by no means confined to the enormous headphone section. Towering high-end shrines attracted plenty of attention from younger visitors, too, who examined these elaborate systems with genuine curiosity and enthusiasm.
All the newly added rooms were on the stadium’s second floor, which had consequently become the show’s ultra-high-end headquarters. Some of the most formidable systems ever demonstrated in Poland could be found here. In one room, Ubiq Audio monoblocks drove Wilson Audio Autobiography loudspeakers in a system with a total price tag of around 10 million zlotys (approximately €2.5 million). An Acapella system built around the mighty Sphäron Excalibur reached similarly stratospheric price levels.
Yet these exercises in extreme high-end audio did nothing to change the fundamental character of AVS: it remains, first and foremost, “the hi-fi show for ordinary people”. That spirit was reflected in the music, too. Alongside the usual tired audio-show staples—which, alas, no show seems capable of sparing us—we were delighted to hear the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rammstein, Elvis, French chanson, and classical selections we had not already encountered at dozens of previous shows. There was also a healthy helping of Polish pop and hip-hop.
Speaking of hip-hop, the traditional DJ was, of course, back at his customary spot near the entrance on the stadium’s first floor. In fact, we spotted two different DJs this time around. Fun and games were also very much part of the proceedings, including JBL’s annual prize wheel. Younger visitors, in particular, could be found unwinding between listening sessions at the various gaming consoles and racing simulators.
Those who eventually needed a break from the bustle of the stadium could retreat to the Golden Tulip for a more civilized listening session or two. The atmosphere here was generally far more relaxed than at either the Radisson or PGE Narodowy, both of which were packed to the rafters at times, particularly on Friday and Saturday.
The Golden Tulip’s handful of large conference rooms had all been acoustically treated to an excellent standard, and some truly spectacular systems performed for audiences that were, for the most part, refreshingly small. There may not have been quite as much to see and hear here in sheer quantity, but what was on offer was well worth both the time and the attention. And in its peaceful surroundings, the Golden Tulip made the perfect place to wind down as the show drew to a close.