AES Nashville 2026, seen here early on Saturday as the exhibit floor was warming up. Photo: Future.
Nashville, TN (November 2, 2026)—Nashville knows a little something about having a good time, so when the Audio Engineering Society announced it was bringing its annual North American convention to Music City, it struck many across the industry as a smart move. They were correct.
Held this past Friday, October 30 through Sunday, November 1, AES Nashville 2026 put up its tent at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center and promptly beat expectations throughout the weekend. Attendance was high for the mid-sized show, as audio pros filled the aisles to see new gear, network and make the most of an event that traditionally has only been held in New York and California.
The novelty of Nashville hosting the convention led to strong attendance throughout the weekend—a situation buoyed by the presence of music legends like Vince Gill and Jack White doing interview sessions, as well as the usual mix of educational presentations, high-end tech training, immersive demonstrations, cutting-edge gear on the show floor and more.
Any industry misgivings about holding a convention on Halloween quickly vanished as an endless stream of visitors explored the show floor on Saturday, the first day of exhibits. By mid-day, numerous manufacturers were already brainstorming what they will do next year, as the AES will return to Opryland for another show on October 28-30, 2027.
Here’s just a smidge of what we saw:
Gary Thielman, president of Harrison Audio, shows off the Flex-10, the company’s new 10‑in/12‑out, 32‑bit/192 kHz USB/ADAT audio interface. The unit sports two preamps at the front end, each with H-Drive transformer saturation intended to bring back that classic 1970s Harrison console sound. Photo: Future.
Neumann’s Josh Estock, market development manager, Americas, was on-hand extoling the virtues of the new KH 310 II and KH 350 studio monitors, which just came out in September, and the company’s modern re-issue of the classic M 50 V microphone, seen here perched atop a KH 350. Photo: Future.
Sweetwater spent the weekend giving tours of its sleek Airstream Dolby Atmos mixing studio. Check out our recent feature on the Airstream’s development. Photo: Future.
DiGiCo was the first stop for many attendees, who were there to see the company’s Quantum desks; Fourier Audio’s Hyperport protocol, which is now shipping; and Klang’s new KOS 6.1 OS and app, which debuts this week. Photo: Future.
Australian manufacturer Beez Neez was at the show with a bevy of mics on offer. Photo: Future.
Sony cleverly demoed its new ECM-AX10 Spatial Audio USB-C condenser microphone despite the noisy convention center by placing the mic inside a set of wind chimes and letting visitors hear the results on headphones. Photo: Future.
SSL had one of the largest booths at AES Nashville 2026, where Phil Scholes, VP Technical Operations, took visitors through the company’s new flagship Odyssey console. Photo: Future.
Audio-Technica’s Gary Boss took a moment to enjoy the dulcet tones emanating from the company’s ATH-M40x headphones on display. Photo: Future.
Violet Audio’s Phil Wagner was on-hand to demonstrate the dMix 128, which released its new V2 firmware just before the show. Photo: Future.
