Totem Acoustic Owner's Thread - Page 3

Sweet deal - very sweet. I think you may have just bought yourself the best bargain in audio

all I can say is that I am very happy. can't believe the sound. I had been looking for a good bargain for about 3 months. just had to be patient. now if I can find a totem center for a good price that would be sweet.

Have you guys had a chance to hear the new Tribe In-walls? Amazing.

I recently auditioned the Arro's and thought they were too laid back sounding. I listened to some Sheryl Crow and IMO the Arro's made her sound like Diana Krall. Now the Forest's on the other hand sounded just wonderful. I could have gotten them for
$2 grand, but I'm on a tight budget now and couldn't spend the extra cash. So I'm still looking for the perfect and cheap(under $2,000) and relatively small speaker. Are the Ascend Sierra 's really that good? I don't know much about the company's speaker line.

Have you checked audiogon.com for the Forests? I found mine there 3-4 years ago for about 4 bills less than what you are looking at.

I haven't checked out audiogon.com yet. I'll have to do that soon.

The economy is really hurting the audio business. During my recent speaker quest I found that many local shops are scaling back on the number of speaker brands they carry and models they display. The salespeople have told me they can't afford the carrying costs even within the speaker lines they do carry. They favor companies who provide free demo speakers. Has anyone else experienced this?

I'd like to know what companies are giving free audio speakers as demo. When it comes to the Totem line there is a huge difference between the Arros and the Forests. If your looking for great sound under 2 grand then look at the Rainmakers, at about a grand you'll have money left to buy some nice stands to put them on.

What exactly do you mean by "Really that good"?

I sold my Totem Sttafs after getting Ascend 340SE... Liked better the 340SE than Sttafs even if they cost me about a third of the Totems... Now I have 340SEs and Sierras, and wouldn't go back to Totems Arros, Sttafs... Wouldn't trade Sierras for Mites, RainMakers, Dreamcatchers either...

As for Totem's bigger boys, Model1 and Hawks, never compared them side by side, but I'd say that the Sierras are definitely more in that league than Totem's cheaper speakers. IMHO, Sierras are clearly better than the other Totems mentioned, but vs Hawks/Model1, things become closer...

Forests, couldn't tell you, but that's a 3000$ speaker vs 900$ speaker for Sierra, I'd hope the Totems would blow the Ascends away, but I definitely wouldn't bet my pay check on it. I'm guessing that just like vs Hawks/M1, the results might vary depending on listener preferences... (Totems would probably do some things better, and Sierras might also do some things better... So which in the end you'd prefer might vary on your taste and speaker judging criterias; what's important for you in speakers...). Some prefer the Hawks to Forests, others M1, so I could definitely see the Sierras also getting picked as the winners.

The 340SEs while being great for 560$, imho, would end up pretty short in that group. VS Staffs, RMs, Arros, Mites, DCs, they can definitely hold their own (depending on what you value, like me could well end up with putting 340SE on top), but vs Hawks/M1/Forests/Sierras, they end up a bit short (Doubt many would choose them as best from that group... Here the 340SE shortcomings somewhat highlights them as being the cheapest speakers.)

That's a very interesting observation on the Arro's. Never heard that one before. If anything, I've read comments on how forward they are as compared to say the Sttaf's (but Grandarf has had both so he knows the characteristics of them). I've only heard the Arro's a couple of times, the Sttafs once, and I found the Sttaf's too laid back and the Arro's more forward casting a bigger soundstage which was weird but definitely did not hit as low as the Sttafs. Ended up getting a great deal on the Hawks so I went with those and am very happy with them.

Also I agree with the economy really hitting the audio industry hard, I would wait a bit longer as you should start seeing some amazing deals at these places, along with used as after all if people need to sell their gear in a bad economy, they pretty much have to go 50 % less than what that gear is being sold for new (at least to me they do otherwise I'm not looking at it) so there should be some incredible deals coming on Audiogon and Craigslist as well.

++

The thing with Arros is that they don't have a flat frequency response, so they'll never sound neutral. But you can either bring them closer to backwall and they get bass heavy, or bring them further back and they then lack bass, but then moving them back and forth also influence the mids, and they, like I said, don't seem to have a flat FR, so some frequencies might be attenuated while others augmented just compounds the problem... And depending on which freqs exactly for you is mids, might find them distant, or bright...

So really, these speakers are so problematic to place in my experience, that you can describe them pretty much in any way and you'll be right But as kpt said, the Sttafs are definitely warmer, yet suffer from the same thing as Arros; not very flat FR, and moving them might fix some thing while making others worst... But arros are definitely more forward than Sttafs... If you thought Arros laid back, forget the Sttafs! Hawks are the ones I liked when demoing Sttafs, but thought I'd get used to Sttaf sound and enjoy the better bass, although more exaggerated... Ao many like warm speakers, thought I might get used to them, didn't go exactly as planned...

If you can hear the Hawks, the Sierras are more similar to them than Arros/Sttafs. Anyhow, if you don't mind uneven FR, or warm sound, then you might still love Arros/Sttafs, but I really like neutral sound so these were just not the speakers for me...

Accurate and Beautiful with music or movies in 5.1 setup.

I Haven't had a chance to hear them in 5.1 yet but they are very very impressive in 2 channel .

That's good to know - when I'm ready to build my h/t room in the basement this is something I've been looking at as a solution to my speakers. With the home renovation rebates being offered now, this may come sooner than later.

I registered here about a year ago, but never really partook of the conversations for some reason. Could be due to the fact I spend most of my time over at blu-ray.com, but I wanted to join in as I too am a proud and happy Totem owner.

I run Totem Sttaf's on the front-end with a Totem Mite-T centre channel and 2 Totem Mites for rears. I have Yamaha HTR-6190B receiver.

I just wanted to introduce myslef as I found this thread and hope to join in the discussion.

John

Welcome John. Let me ask you, whats a good Bluray player for around $400?

I personally think that the PS3 is still the most versatile player out there for obvious reason. However, in terms of video quality, many are now saying the better standalone players offers superior video quality. Without going into the higher-end players, most people I talk to like either the SONY or PANASONIC players. Samsung is very popular as well, but it seems like that is a bit of a hit and miss as there are many discussion threads with some heated opinions about its reliability.

Being from Canada, I'm not too familiar with U.S. pricing, but for $400 you are looking at a good quality (not entry-level model) player. Let me ask my buddies over at blu-ray.com about some models, pricing and online vendors.


Thanks for the welcome!
John

Much like John72953, I also have the Sttafs (L&R) & the Mite T Center. I agree with others that the Sttafs are excellent for 2 channel audio, but not as impressive for HT. I do like the Mite T Center though. As a result, I really enjoy flipping on some tunes. Waiting for the Emotiva & Oppo before I play around with my system any further.

Thanks for the info John, I have a PS3 now but it's a little difficult for my girlfriend to navigate to play a movie.

Hello,

I'd like to get your opinion whether is it makes sense to match Tribe II (as left and right channels) with Tribe III (as Center). Or is it just bad combination.

I was about to buy a Totem Tribes II for left, right and center channels, when a friend of mine proposed me his slightly used Tribe III for half price.

Thanks for any suggestions,
Best,
Sasha.

It wouldn't hurt, if you can save a buck go for it.

How well does the Rainmaker Center match the Hawks?

Does it have completely different drivers?

Well, in his infinite wisdom, my father decided that he didn't need the speaker boxes for his Arros and tossed them out. Unfortunately, he also tossed the yellow, double-sided sticky pads that you're supposed to use to attach the speakers to the base.

I suspect he also tossed the spikes for the base, since he can't find them. I only told him 4-5 times that I wanted to keep the boxes, but that's another issue.

So, does anyone know where I can get more of the yellow pads? Is it something I can just pick up at Home Depot or somewhere? Or is there something better I can use?

Use the sticky clay like stuff used for hanging posters on a wall. I'm using that stuff to hold my Rainmakers on their speaker stands.

The yellow stuff was just putty, you can get it pretty much at any hardware store for almost nothing.

For the spikes, These look exactly like Totem's, so if you're lucky, they're the same. Maybe call Totem for replacement or ask them for their size. Or maybe someone who still own Totems could measure theirs.

Also similar ones available here: http://www.madisound.com/catalog/pro...oducts_id=1051, but now that you're buying spikes, you could go for nice ones... Never was impressed with the ones on the Totems I had... These look similar to the ones which came with my Ascend stands. They're more expensive, instead of paying like 7.20$ you'd pay like 20$, but hey, if they look better... If you bought Totem speakers you should be able to afford 20$ for spikes

Electro Al and John72953,

Thanks for posting your configuration.

I am thinking of getting the Sttaf (L/R) and Mite-T (Center) as well with Onkyo TX-SR876. I want to use it for music and HT. Your statement about these speakers "but not as impressive for HT" has me concerned. Can you please elaborate.

Fortunately, my father found the putty and the spikes, so I don't have to spend any more money. And yeah, I COULD afford $20 for spikes, but that doesn't mean I WANTED to spend that money

Besides, I'm saving up for this and this, to finish out my HT.

Hope you're not planning on using these with the Arros... So if I get this straight, you also have a pair of Be speakers? That makes little sens if you didn't want to spend 20$ for nicer spikes...

Well, as I mentioned, the Arros are not mine. I purchased them for my father as a retirement present. I, on the other hand, own the 1037BE. Wasn't planning to spend that much, but I was offered one of those "too good to pass up" deals on a pristine dealer demo pair. I still have not seen a better price on Agon, even for "used"

And as I said, there's a difference between being able to pay for something and "wanting" to pay for something. I'm a tight-wad for some things, and I just don't see the point on spending $20 for spikes when I can get them for less. The spike would've been hidden by the carpet anyway, so I didn't see the point in spending more for the looks. Besides, that $20 buys you two six-packs of Guiness!

I do wish I had been able to listen to the Forest before I heard the Focal. I probably would have been very happy with the sound of the Forest and saved myself a lot of money

I Just spent the day listening to Forests, OMG. They are so sweet.

I just picked a pair of Totem arro from a guy for $350 and I am amazed how these small speakers sound, the speakers are in great shape he told me they got about 60hrs on them so they should improve a bit. I still cant believe the bass and sound they put for their size. Compared to the x-statiks I have, the mids are more recesed but the highs and sound seems fuller at low volume even if the other speaker has 4 6"drivers. The statiks sound bigger at higher volume and in HT as expected but in a small room at normal 80db playing a intimate session with a good wine I'd prefer the Totem, I even crossed them at 80hz with a MFW-15 to see what they got and cranked The Police certifiable Blueray and they rocked..! Just one of the best purchases I've ever made..