The Official Totem Acoustics Speakers Thread

[Big Daddy]

Please discuss your Totem Acoustics speakers in this thread. You can include pictures, reviews, or any other comments regarding your speakers.

Manufacturer’s Website: http://www.totemacoustic.eu/english/index.htm

[Johnny Vinyl]

A word of thank you to Big Daddy for creating this thread and to JasonR for the encouragement and enlightenment about what these types of threads could do.

As the offical Head Totem Guy on Blu-ray.com I shall try to provide some information about these highly regarded and quite moderately priced speakers.

Watch for info to follow soon......

John

[JJ]

Who wouldn't want a lovely pair of Arro's to grace their living room? I swear, these things blend in perfectly moreso than any other speaker I've seen.

[Johnny Vinyl]

JJ...that's a great shot of the ARROS in their various finishes.Thank you!

The ARROS are Totem's entry-level floorstander and have great WAF appeal because of their diminutive size and excellent finish. If you have a small room then these mighty titans could be just the speaker to satisfy you.

If these speakers interest you, then follow this link and be sure to read the associated reviews as well.

John

[JasonR]

I really wanted to audition these, couldn't find an American dealer though? Are they not dealt in the states?

[Dagger]

Originally Posted by JasonR

I really wanted to audition these, couldn't find an American dealer though? Are they not dealt in the states?

There's a dealer in AZ that I know sells them. Audionut.com

[rded]

Originally Posted by JasonR

I really wanted to audition these, couldn't find an American dealer though? Are they not dealt in the states?

There are a few in the chicago land lemme know if you wana do that because thatll be a blast

[Johnny Vinyl]

Originally Posted by JasonR

I really wanted to audition these, couldn't find an American dealer though? Are they not dealt in the states?

Type in your ZIP CODE and it'll bring up a list of resellers.

John

[Johnny Vinyl]

Totem The One 20th Ann Edition.jpg

At $3,595/pair this is not a speaker for those on a limited budget, but should certainly be given some serious attention by those whose pocketbooks are stuffed a little deeper than mine.

Here's a review published in the September 2008 issue of The Absolute Sound

The Porsche Speedster of Mini-Monitors
April 17th, 2009 -- by Wayne Garcia
Source: The Absolute Sound Products in this article: Totem Acoustics The One Loudspeaker


Though it may not rank with true blood sports—such as politics and filmmaking—specialty audio manufacturing is nevertheless one rough game. Knowing this, however, has never discouraged hopeful newcomers, who, despite the high end’s marginalized status in the U.S., a dearth of quality dealers, and an aging customer base, seem only to grow with each new Consumer Electronics Show. And because this risky business has such a high casualty rate, it’s all the more impressive when a company lives to celebrate a milestone anniversary, as Montreal’s Totem Acoustic has done with its twentieth.

Founded by a lanky and extremely amiable fellow named Vince Bruzzese, who is also the company’s CEO and chief designer (see Back Page this issue), Totem first released a notably fine sounding mini-monitor called the Model 1. That speaker would eventually evolve into the Model 1 Signature (which is still in production), with improvements that included higher-quality cabinetwork, costly exotic crossover parts, tighter-tolerance drivers, bi-wiring capability, and a more refined as well as dynamic sonic presentation.

Although Totem’s line has grown to include larger floorstanding models, home-theater packages, subwoofers, and a new range of potentially fine-sounding in-wall and in-ceiling speakers, one senses when speaking with Bruzzese that tiny two-way monitors are where his passion truly lies.

In a fitting tribute to Totem’s two decades, Bruzzese decided to take all he’s learned about speaker design over the past 20 years and apply it to his original Model 1. The result is The One—a special anniversary edition limited to just 2000 pairs, and priced at $3595.

But celebrating 20 years of hard work was not the only motivation behind The One. “I set out to make the Porsche Speedster of little speakers,” Bruzzese told me. “And frankly, I was a bit perturbed at shows where I was hearing $15k to $25k minis that all have their pluses and minuses, but what about value? So I decided to revisit the Model 1.”

Unlike that design, which had a detachable back in order to more easily access the cabinet’s limited internal space, The One’s enclosure utilizes more rigid and costly monocoque construction. The One is manufactured using three different densities of MDF; all joints are lock mitered, glued on all six faces, and pressed into place before being veneered both outside and in. Rather unusually, Totem maintains its own woodshop, which is certainly expensive in an industry that sources so many of its speaker enclosures from China. “We make our cabinets to be harmonically expressive,” Vince said, “which means creating synergy between veneers, stains, and lacquers.” When I asked if this meant he didn’t prize inertness above all in a cabinet, Bruzzese replied, “Well, that’s a pretty dead little box, but it still creates a lot of energy. The speaker has usable output to around 40Hz, even into the mid-thirties, so it’s important for the drivers, cabinet, and crossover to work synergistically.” Because of this “synergy”—a word that frequently pops up in conversations with Bruzzese—and because the materials used to internally damp speaker cabinets either degrade or change over the years, Totem’s enclosures have either very little or no internal damping materials, which Bruzzese says results in better transient response.

The One comes in but a single finish, which Totem calls “root brown.” To me, the lovely veneers suggest a rich espresso-like patina. The front baffle does not include a grille, which sounds better and arguably looks better, too; the cabinet is rear-ported, and two glittering sets of the finest WBT connectors await single- or bi-wiring. Totem sometimes build its own drivers and sometimes enters into collaborative relationships with driver manufacturers that build to Totem’s specs (often using Totem-supplied tooling). Although Bruzzese told me he could make a musical speaker using “any two drivers and a cardboard box,” he likes to have a lot of drivers on hand. “There is no advantage to limiting my choice,” he said.

The two-way The One uses a 5.5" Dynaudio-sourced mid/bass driver boasting a 3" diameter voice-coil; the tweeter is a 1" aluminum chambered-dome from SEAS. In addition to the sophisticated measurement tools Totem uses to match its drivers, Totem also “ear-matches” them. “There are subtle qualitative differences measurements just can’t catch,” says Vince.

For those who flee from metal dome tweeters the way Republicans are currently fleeing from the Bush Administration, don’t assume that The One’s aluminum dome sounds bright. It is extended and quite defined, but it is very natural and airy whether reproducing triangle or cymbal, or the upper ranges of trumpet, violin, or guitar.

These qualities were consistently evident over a wide range of recordings I auditioned during my weeks with The One, from the singing, sweet, yet naturally steely rasp of Nathan Milstein’s Strad in an unaccompanied Bach Partita to Lee Morgan’s piercing yet lyrical trumpet on Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers’ A Night in Tunisia [Music Matters/Blue Note 45rpm LP], or, on the same record, Art Blakey’s shimmering ride cymbal. I came away feeling that The One’s tweeter is voiced to just the right balance of extension, bite—when needed—and sweet airiness.

And while that little 5.5" main driver packs a surprising wallop and rarely leaves you feeling like the speaker lacks bass—just listen to the Gutter Twins fine sounding Saturnalia [Sub Pop], where The One’s superb clarity and dynamic liveliness survived an arsenal of guitars, synths, organ, bass, lap steel, and drums—it is naturally going to lack the sheer robustness and weight of larger cones. I’ll again cite Music Matters’ superb reissue of A Night in Tunisia, where Blakey’s playing was beautifully defined, with remarkable transient speed, rhythmic precision, and textural definition, though lacking the sheer physical power heard from beefier designs.

But then, this is hardly news to fans of mini-monitors. We love them for their strengths, and can usually live without the bottom octave and paint-peeling volume levels that are the undisputed realms of larger drivers and multi-way systems. Of course, these designs typically lack the seamless overall coherence and ability to disappear the way the best two-ways can. Yes, alas, even in the high-end, we’re forced to make choices.

Of course, it isn’t only the drivers that create this illusion of speaking with a single voice. Well-designed crossovers with excellent parts play an equally important role. To this end, Totem has spared no expense with The One’s crossover, which contain very-high-quality gold/silver-foil and paper-and-oil capacitors. “Our goal is to make excellent speakers that will perform consistently over 20 years, so we use no electrolytics,” said Bruzzese, who also mentioned that Totem stocks parts for every speaker the company has yet produced.

I gleaned many other interesting bits of information from Bruzzese, such as the fact that he voices his speakers in mono and tunes them to sound as uniform as possible wherever they’re placed in his design room. “It’s like the human voice,” he said. “No matter where a singer may stand in a room, they sing straight ahead and you still get a beautiful sound. We want our speakers to involve everybody in a room.” As such, excellent off-axis dispersion is a Totem design goal.

Indeed, while setting up The One, I read Totem’s advice not to toe-in the speakers. Naturally, I ignored it and began by placing The Ones (on their dedicated and hefty T4S stands) in roughly the same spot I’ve found works well for most speakers in my room—with a bit of toe-in. They sounded fine, but after a few days of listening I had this nagging feeling that imaging, soundstaging, and openness weren’t all they could be. So I began experimenting and found that no toe-in did produce the best results. Lesson learned: Owner’s manuals are occasionally worth reading, after all.

Thus settled, like many small monitors, The One is capable of recreating quite a large and holographic soundfield. Listening to a vinyl copy of Bernstein’s Carmen [DG], graciously sent by my colleague Paul Seydor, it struck me again why I love superb two-way speakers like Totem’s The One, the Magico Mini, and the Kharma 3.2 and Mini Exquisites that have been my references these past few years. In addition to that magical, “you-are-there” feeling of being transported to the venue, or, perhaps more accurately in this case, of having the venue transported to you, the seamless bottom-to-top coherence mentioned above was dramatically displayed. This is especially difficult to achieve (and hence, all the more rewarding) with a score like this one, where Bizet employed full orchestral forces ranging from timpani to triangle, a rich cast of vocal soloists, as well as adult and children’s choruses. The One effortlessly, convincingly, and thrillingly recreated the performance, with all its harmonic complexity, bold dynamic swings, and dramatic tension. Moreover, the soundstage I mentioned at the start of this paragraph opened like the evening sky on a brilliantly clear night, creating that rare but hoped for illusion that sound isn’t really coming from speakers at all.

It should come as no surprise that The One is a knockout with smaller-scale vocal music. Both male and female voices emerge as easy, warm, and natural, with essentially no trace of boxiness or other overt coloration. This was true with Cynthia Gooding’s creamy, slightly smoky alto on A Treasury of Spanish and Mexican Folk Song [Elektra], as well as the incomparable baritone of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau on Songs of the New Vienna School [DG].

So does Totem’s The One compete with the far costlier models mentioned above? Yes and no. While it doesn’t have the weight, bass extension, sheer dynamic punch, and nth-degree of resolution I’ve heard in a Magico or Kharma design, The One pulls a similarly magical disappearing act. I should add for those who may not be familiar with them that these speakers range from something like six-to-twelve times the cost of Totem’s little design. Which makes this Twentieth Anniversary design a bargain to celebrate. Most importantly, Totem’s limited edition The One is a speaker that grabs your emotions, making it difficult to stop listening.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Totem 5.1 Dreamcatcher System.jpg

Price: $2,395 + (depending on finish)

Totem DREAMCATCHER 5.1 System
An affordable, aesthetic, flexible mini system that defies categorization and obsolescence. The Dreamcatcher 5.1 is comprised of 4 main monitor speakers, a matching high definition center speaker and a quick, small, elegant. 200 W powered subwoofer.

The Dreamcatcher system provides a holographic, omnidirectional sound with great off-axis performance. The result is listeners are not encumbered by the a normally small or restricted listening area. They are wide open and spacious.


•Frequency Response 57 Hz to 25 kHz ? 3 dB (in room)
•Impedance 4 ohms
•Sensitivity 87.5 dB
•Power 100 W max. program
•Speaker Terminals 4-way bi-wireable
•Dimensions w 5 x d 7 x h 11.25? w 130 x d 180 x h 285 mm
•Centre Channel Frequency Response 45 Hz to 25 kHz ? 3 dB (in room)
•Impedance 8 ohms
•Sensitivity 88 dB
•Power 100 W max. program
•Speaker Terminals 4-way bi-wireable
•Dimensions w 21 x d 7 x h 5? w 540 x d 180 x h 130 mm
•Powered subwoofer Frequency response 30 Hz to 150 Hz
•Amplification 200 W max.
•Phase 180 degree switch - Yes
•Volume adjustment Yes
•Dimensions w 7.75 x d 10.75 x h 10.25? w 195 x d 270 x h 257 mm

[JasonR]

Originally Posted by John72953

Type in your ZIP CODE and it'll bring up a list of resellers.

John

It has always brought back St. Leonard, QC. And yes I have United States in there.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Originally Posted by JasonR

It has always brought back St. Leonard, QC. And yes I have United States in there.

What's your ZIP CODE? Lemme try from my end...who knows....Also, try different ZIP CODES in your city....may work.

John

[JasonR]

Try 62095?

[Johnny Vinyl]

Never mind Jason.....I tried it and it still returns the Totem home address.

I'll follow up for you and get back later today.

John

[prerich]

Originally Posted by JasonR

I really wanted to audition these, couldn't find an American dealer though? Are they not dealt in the states?

There's a dealer in Virgina (at least when I was there they did) Domes Audio Video Environments www.domesav.com .

[Johnny Vinyl]

Jason....PM sent!

John

[JasonR]

John,

Thought of you while looking through Home Theater Magazine tonight!

Jason

[Johnny Vinyl]

Jason

I haven't seen that one yet. In general though, I love their adversitements...very simple and elegant. The pic is of their TRIBE Series of On-Wall speakers. Don't know the girl though, but wish I did!

John

[Johnny Vinyl]

Thought I'd post this as you won't ever find a better price on the Totem Sttaf's anywhere. They retail for $1,795 CDN, so this is about a 40% discount.

Unfortunately he only wants to do local pick-up (Toronto/GTA), but it may be worth your while to contact him anyway.

http://www.canuckaudiomart.com/detai...aff__one_pair/

John

[Johnny Vinyl]

There will be a representative from Totem Acoustics at Fairview HiFi in Burlington, Ontario on Saturday November 7, 2009.

They are bringing in a pair of Totem Wind speakers. So if anyone wants to hear these beauties, I suggest coming down and having a look.

Additionally, there will also be a rep there for Pro-Ject Turntables, and they will be introducing their new Walnut finish Xpression III with a carbon fibre tonearm and an OM5(?) cartridge. The retail on this TT will be $899 CDN

Maybe I'll see some of you there...that would be cool!

John