Speaker Asylum

Posted by Luminator (A) on January 04, 2025 at 17:14:52

A few years ago, an audiophile named Caleb reached out to me, mostly about cables. He said, "I noticed a few things. Who are these eight or so sick creeps, who can't read, misconstrue your posts, and hijack them? More importantly, why doesn't this site do anything about them? But I see that you use Totems."

Caleb explained, "We were living in Vancouver, WA, from 1999-2003. For most of that time, we had the Totem Forest in mahogany, which my dad hated. Yeah, I agree; the reddish hue was kind of an eyesore. But everyone loved how this relatively small speaker sounded. When we moved, we sold the Forest. I have to admit, we missed the Forest. I can't put my finger on it, but unlike everything else we've tried, that Forest had a way of sucking everyone in. People actually cared and talked about the music."

Caleb more recently wrote, "I see that your friends and coworkers also had experience with the Forest. We never biwired our Forest. Can you tell us more about using a regular speaker cable plus a jumper?"

Similar to the Thiel CS1.5, the Totem Forest, on account of excess bass, was not a fit for my parents' 15x15 room. I got married in 2003. After being renovated in 2004, my new home would have a roughly 15x19 room. This room (above) was just right for a Totem Forest. Yeah, yeah, the internal bi-wire XLO Limited Edition speaker cable cost more than the Forest itself. But what an awesome combination! And no, Caleb and I did not simultaneously have the Forests.

But then my wife and I had kids. When the kids started crawling and standing, they could tip over the Forest, which merely rested on ball bearings. That is, the Forest was not anchored or spiked to the floor.

In 2008, while working in property management, I took the Totem Forest to a mixed-use commercial building. We had converted the long-vacant commercial ground floor retail space into a discotheque. I have no idea where my coworker got it from, but she had Sharyn Maceren's In My Nighttime Land CD. The system consisted of Simaudio Andromeda CD player, P-8 preamp, W-7 power amp, and Nordost Valhalla cabling. The Forest took up residence on the foot-tall dais. The title track was unforgettably enchanting, and drew our guests in.

My coworker then played "Sweet Nothings," which you can think of as a continuation of m:g's "Sweet Honesty." Holy cow! The way the Totem Forest projected "Sweet Nothings" made it seem that we had ten times the 25 people we actually had. It was so infectious, you raised both of your arms, closed your eyes, got swept up in the music, and danced like a girl!

Back at home, we sorely missed the Totem Forest. And for many years, even as we've brought in other Totems, that original Forest just had a personality and spirit, not quite duplicated in the others.

Starting in the late-2000s, we used Nordost Valhalla (errs on the thin side) and XLO Limited Edition (errs on the warm side) bi-wire jumpers. We now have the Kimber KS 9068, which is more strictly accurate. Thus, it is a better tool for evaluating regular single-wire speaker cables, when used on bi-wire speakers, such as the Totem Forest Signature.

The Cardas Clear Beyond can make you squirm. It keeps images as big, meaty, round, thick, and full-bodied. But that same thickness can make the music plodding and ponderous, which defeats the purpose of the normally quick, energetic, and enthusiastic Forest Signature.

Kimber's own 4AG imparts a shine or glare, over the music. This is what causes some audiophiles to shout, "Silver sounds bright!" Moreover, the 4AG does not preserve as much deep bass as it should. In addition, some of the midbass has a loss of control, so it comes across as "squid-like." Overall, we do not prefer the 4AG on the Totem FS. If you are going with Kimber, the Monocle-XL and Carbon 18XL preserve more body and bass extension, and do not have the 4AG's "spotlighting" effects.

We no longer have the car-priced Nordost Odin, but one of my audiophile acquaintances still has the Valhalla, in both standard stereo pair, and internal bi-wire. Either way, the Valhalla thins out the sound, and adds a whitish grain. These characteristics are not, in my friends' judgments, an ideal match for the Totem FS. My friend Scylla says, "I've seen the Valhalla work better on other speakers. For this kind of money, you can do better, for the Forest Signature."

"I can't touch my toes, while keeping my legs straight," groans Kuma.

After three sons and now in menopause, Kuma can be forgiven, for not being able to touch her toes. Like many audiophiles, Kuma likes to do stretching, meditating, Pilates, and yoga. Therefore, she loves the clean, transparent, and open Tara Labs The One CX. Indeed, if you want your Totem FS to do a better job at recreating the concert hall, it likes Tara Labs The One CX better than other brands. These same sonic traits also make trance and EDM more enchanting and mind-blowing.

On the Thiel CS2.4, the Tara Labs The One CX worked better than the XLO Unlimited Edition. However, the UE-5 preserves imaging (without over-blowing them, like with the Cardas Clear Beyond), control, and disciplined punch. The UE-5 is not as clean, open, and transparent as the Tara Labs, but counters with a stability and solidity. With UE-5, textures are slightly drier than they should be. And there's a slight warm-from-within quality, as well.

The UE-5 just has a sure-footedness not quite matched by other speaker cables. And then you have the FS, which is finger-snappingly fast and precise. If you and your friends do dance routines, which must have perfect timing, spacing, and rhythm, you'll love the UE-5 on the FS.

After going through multiple high-quality speaker cables, you'd be justified in saying, "With each, the Totem FS sounds different." The mature audiophile also knows that, in order to tip the FS in your favor, you need to choose speaker cabling wisely.

With the Totem FS, we have tried three different base Kimber configurations.

1.) Kimber's Bi-Focal XL. Other bi-wire cables will beat out the Bi-Focal XL in specific areas. But for overall balance, the Bi-Focal XL is an excellent match, for the FS.

If you are so blessed, to be able to upgrade from the FS, you will still find much use for the Bi-Focal XL. It performs wonderfully on Totem's more expensive Wind and Element Earth.

2.) Kimber Monocle-XL plus KS 9068 jumper. Versus #1 above, the mid-treble is cleaner, but perhaps not as integrated, as with Kimber's own Bi-Focal XL. If you already like the Monocle-XL, but won't insanely spring for the KS 9068 (which costs more than the Monocle-XL itself), then you're going to want the all-copper KS 9063 jumpers, which are not as ragged-sounding as Kimber's own 4TC and Carbon jumpers.

3.) Two runs of Kimber Monocle-XL. Versus the Bi-Focal XL, this configuration does a better job of preserving treble body, control, image size, and anchoring within the soundstage. If your amp can accommodate two runs of speaker cable, and you have the physical space for such thick cables, the double-run of Monocle-XL outperforms #1 and #2 above.

As of this writing, my audiophile circle/network/web is trying to bring in, among many other speaker cables, Kimber's Select models. If so, we'll be sure to stick those on a Forest Signature, and see how well the FS lets us know what's going on.

Late in the game, it was revealed that Caleb was not a Boomer. Rather, he is actually four years younger than I am. Caleb wrote, "My dad was the clan's original audiophile. When we lived in Vancouver, I was working in Portland."

Since the late 2010's, the plurality of audiophiles reaching out to me was born in the 1960s. Therefore they are younger Boomers, and older Gen X'ers. Nothing against other age groups, but it was refreshing to hear from another 1970's Gen X'er.

"Beyond that," wrote Caleb, "Keep providing stories and details about the Totem Forest Signature. Like I said, I'm not the only one, who was sad to see our original Forest go. I am not going to step on other people's toes, but so far, the information you have provided is all green lights for me and my family."

-Lummy The Loch Monster