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Ron Sutherland was extremely excited about his versatile, new preamplifier.

“Want to know what it’s called?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“The N1.”

“Oh.”

“Get it?”

“What?”

“N1!”

“Hmm?”

“It’s all-in-one!”

It was around this point of the show that I started to feel weak and dizzy, overwhelmed by the size of RMAF and disappointed by the lack of truly affordable gear. Thank goodness for Gold Sound. The Colorado dealer had pieced together not one, not two, but five affordable, audiophile systems priced under $5000.

There was a lot of buzz over the new high-performance, highly versatile Invicta DAC/preamp ($3395) from Resonessence Labs. The Invicta handles all resolutions up to 24-bit/192kHz from all of its inputs, including asynchronous USB 2.0.

Riding the Acoustic Signature Storm ($7500) was the new FXR II tonearm ($1995) by the Funk Firm. Super cool.

Totem was showing their new Element Series of loudspeakers. Both the stand-mounted Fire ($6000/pair) and floorstanding Earth ($9000/pair) use Totem’s 7-inch Torrent hand-assembled driver and employ no crossover parts in the woofer section.

Even as my dear friend Michael Lavorgna lays down the law in the Wild Wild West that is Computer Audio and continues to rid himself of Compact Discs, I find myself more and more attracted to the little silver discs and their associated players. So I was happy to learn about Parasound’s new CD 1, which adds a computer to the conventional CD player.

I walked in during “Band on the Run,” and the sound was full of life, energy, and impact. I took a seat and scanned the deceptively small and apparently simple system: 3-way ATC SCM50SL passive loudspeakers ($11,650/pair), each way powered by its own pair of Crimson Electronics 640E Series III monoblocks ($5995/pair), a Crimson Electronics 710 preamplifier ($6995, including phono section), and Resolution Audio’s Cantata Music Center ($6000; reviewed by Jon Iverson in our November issue). All components rested neatly on simple, affordable Ikea Lack stands.