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Possibly controversial: Totem arro overrated?

Alright, I may very well need to put on my flame suit here. Now let me preface by saying this: I had a pair of Totem Arros and loved them I found them to be lovely little speakers with a high WAF and lovely finishing details. What I didn't really witness however, was the unbelievable imaging that everyone talks about, the image would waver from left to right and become sort of ubiquitous when it should be dead center.

Comparatively, for instance, I've picked up a pair of Martin Logan SL3, and using the same amp and source, I'm getting a rock-solid center image and more depth and width to the soundstage. Are my ears inferior? Is it more so just a continuance of Totem Acoustic marketing when people wax lyrical about the arro's "magical" imaging capabilities? I hate to rock the boat here, but this is just something that I've been thinking about for the past few weeks and I wanted to see if others had thought the same.

David
128x128aenergi
bdgregory
1,712 posts
 
and using the same amp and source
that right there may be the root of your different experience. I don't have, nor have I ever heard the Arros, but do have 2 other Totem speakers and enough experience with all sorts of gear to know that some combinations work better than others.

Also, I have had many experiences where my impression of a component was 180 degrees from what others have reported. It could be attributed to what's between the ears.
pbnaudio's avatar
pbnaudio
1,613 posts
 
David,

Just asking the obvious are your speakers connected in phase ?

As Always, Good listening

Peter
aenergi's avatar
aenergi OP
4 posts
 
You know Pete, I wondered that, I did confirm that they were wired red-to-red, black-to-black. Should I try to purposely do black to red, red to black to see if that improves things?
stevecham
3,340 posts
 
There is always the possibility that the speakers were miswired internally...stranger things have happened in quality control.

Trust your ears.
pbnaudio's avatar
pbnaudio
1,613 posts
 
Its quite easy to check, use a battery applied positive to the red terminal and negative to the black should produce a outward movement of the woofer cone.

You can do the same to the tweeter but it will require opening up the speaker and applying the battery voltage after the crossover. I don't know if the Arro is designed so that the tweeter is in electrical phase with the woofer, ie positive voltage to the positive wire produces an outward movement of the dome but if you check both they should be identical.

I've had a few Totems through here for repair and the tweeters are wired with a fine gauge solid core silver teflon insulated wire that's twisted with both the positive and negative wires of the same color (purple on the ones that were here) so a mis-wiring is a possibility. I'm sure Totem has a stringent QC program, but as Steve stated stranger things have happened.

Best of luck

Peter
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