I've been to a couple of audio shows... one was great but the second was a disappointment. and 500 miles away... flew down and paid for room to get bummed out. Would love to go to Axpona but I haven't lost anything in Chicago so that is a major hurdle that I just can't get over. They have a large one in Germany that I've been thinking about and may end up their sooner or later.
Interesting about the venders not allowing you to play your music on their equipment.... I've noticed from watching demos on youtube that the songs appear to be manipulated to sound better than the original. I have really good equipment so it isn't that theirs are just better sounding equipment. I can understand that they want their equipment to shine and might be reluctant to have a nobody (buyer) put on something that they may feel degrades their sound.