Acoustic Sounds’ Chad Kassem provided a wonderful demo of some of his fine <a href="http://www.aporecords.com/FLASHindex.cfm">Analogue Productions</a> releases, including Jimmy Lee Robinson’s <i>All My Life</i> and Elvis’ <i>24 Karat Hits</i>&#151all sounding absolutely <i>seductive</i> and <i>enveloping</i> with an extremely liquid and relaxed sound&#151through a system featuring a Clearaudio Concept turntable ($1400), which Kassem was particularly fond of&#151“for the price, this ‘table is hard to beat”&#151and Sony’s SS-AR1 loudspeakers, seen here.

Dynaudio’s Mike Manousselis pulled me into his room with the familiar sounds of the XX. On display here were T+A’s more affordable R-Series components, less flashy than the V-Series, but no less elegant: G1260 R turntable ($3250 with tonearm; $3600 with arm and cartridge; $4300 with built-in phono), PA1260 R integrated amplifier ($5000), CD1260 R CD player ($3800), and MP1260 R DAC streaming client ($4200, providing internet radio, two USB inputs, and wired or wireless streaming abilities).

It was awesome to see the limited edition <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/dynaudio_sapphire_loudspea… Sapphire</a>, cloaked in a stunning clear blue piano lacquer over a veneer of bird’s eye maple. The sound was just as fine: cymbals and horns had a natural bite, without edge or glare, blooming and blooming and blooming into the room.

In addition to the <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/rmaf2010/soundsmith_cartright/">Cartright cartridge setup tool</a>, Soundsmith was showing the new EZ-Mount cartridge screws ($29.99, review to come from Michael Fremer), which allow for easy cartridge installation; Soundsmith’s new top-of-the-line Sussurro Paua moving-iron cartridge ($3499), inspired by Frank Schroder; the special edition, VPI-branded Zephyr high-output cartridge ($999), designed for use with VPI and other unipivot tonearms; and the neat, little “Intuitive” tool ($49.99), designed to make simple, precise adjustments of tracking force and azimuth to VPI tonearms!

If the Soundsmith room had been a van, it would have been rocking. (Hee-haw.) Seriously, there was a party going on in here and Peter Ledermann was the master of ceremonies, cueing up one record while a second was playing. But before I could take a seat, I was mesmerized by this awesome-looking device, the Soundsmith Cartright ($899.95, due early 2011), which resembles some sort of old-school, psychedelic Electro-Harmonix stomp box, but promises to simplify cartridge setup.