2. speakers
  3. 1259375413

Anyone spent time with the Totem Wind?

I demoed the Totem Wind today with a Carry tube amp and Vinyl (also used a logitech server with flac files). It was in a house and not a show room. The room was about 12x20x8 and the speakers were on the short wall about 3 feet out, 6 feed apart with no toe in.

They sounded pretty good but I was not wowed by them... and I wanted to be. The speakers did not seem to have any real faults. The highs, mids, and bass integrated well. They seemed tonally balanced. The sound stage was very wide with a large sweet spot. All in all pretty good speakers. But I just wanted more I guess.

I just want to hear other people thought's on the Totem Winds. If anyone has long term ownership I would love to hear what you think. Also if anyone has compared the directly to Thiel 3.7 or Wilson Sophia (or other good speakers) I would like to hear what you thought.

Also what are your thoughts on the speakers abilities to extract details in the bass(texture), mids, and highs?
james63

Showing 3 responses by rbstehno

rbstehno
1,531 posts
 
i thought about going to the winds from my mani 2's until i heard them being demonstrated by vince. this was a few years ago now. they sounded very nice but i kept my mani 2's.
rbstehno
1,531 posts
 
mordante - i wouldn't say that at all. if a speaker has a tilted up tweeter or a booming bass, those are usually turnoffs. IMO, it is the midrange, soundstage, the little things you haven't heard before, and the disappearing act that most great speakers do that have a WOW effect.
also, maybe it was the room that the winds were in that didn't do them justice. try putting the be-20 ushers in a 12 x 12 ft room, nobody will be impressed. also, the cary tube amp might not be able to drive the totem's. i have the totem mani 2's and using a low powered amp makes these speakers sound pretty poor.
rbstehno
1,531 posts
 
johnnyb53 - i wouldn't say that it is better to put speakers on a long wall vs a short wall. it depends on a lot of things. i have had totem mani 2's for many years and i preferred these on the short walls with the speakers pointing straight ahead, which is totem's recommendation also. i have a 13.5 x 24 ft room, and i like my speakers out from the wall. i had the mani's out about 5ft which i really couldn't do using the long wall.

cary amps are very good but i don't think they will have the power to drive the winds or mani's for that matter. i have a 200 watt classe amp driving the mani's and that would be the smallest amp i would use. i have had them setup using the macintosh 1000 watt monoblocks (and the 352's and 501's) and they sounded fantastic. if i was spending $14k on a new pair of winds i would be using a pair of classe omega's or macintosh 501's or the monoblocks.
More to discover