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Totem Forrest or Vandersteen 3A Sig?

I'm having a tough time chooing between these two speakers. I've owned the 2CE Signatures recently, but don't have a Totem dealer anywhere near me to audition the Forrest. I would like greater upper extension and detail than the 2CE's provide and don't know if electronics or cabling would compensate if I purchased the 3A's. My current amp is an Aragon 8002 and preamp is an Aragon 24K. I'm also in need of a better CD player than my Pioneer DV45A. I think it's too warm. My listening room runs into the entry way and dining room, so its a total of 26' in length, 15' in width, and has a 14' ceiling.

Any recommendations would be appreciated.
lodom
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
Lodom,
If you will get a chance to visit any CES arround just visit both rooms for Totems and Vandersteens and you'll realize how smaller gets bigger...
unsound
7,329 posts
 
You like the Vandersteens but would like greater upper extension and more detail. With that in mind may I suggest Thiels.
jimmiejamie's avatar
jimmiejamie
5 posts
 

im happy with my forrest signatures,(they  do  everything )  that said  vandersteen company have  sold  80000 pairs of the 2ce!  id  go  with  the  speaker  that  sounds  best  to  your  ears. hopefully  you  can  get  in home  demonstration 

soix
9,456 posts
 

I would like greater upper extension and detail than the 2CE's provide 

I’ve heard the 3A Sigs and they’re great speakers but IME they’re not going to give you the upper level detail you’re seeking.  The Forest would be a better option, and yes you definitely need to upgrade the CD player to get the best out of the Forest.  BTW, are you looking to buy new or used?  Best of luck. 

akg_ca's avatar
akg_ca
2,237 posts
 

I’ve owned the TOTEM FORESTs and the ARROs in prior systems, so I know their strengths and warts very well.

MY TAKE:

Upgrade your source first before you choose FORESTs as the upgrade path in isolation,

@soix ….+1 on the cdp upgrade recommendation.

Until you do this, I doubt that just a move to the FORESTs alone in isolation will provide you with your required sonic step-up..

DO YOU HAVE ENOUGH AMP “GRUNT” ?

FORESTs are well known to be power hungry pigs…much more so than most other options. It’s all current (amps);…wpc specs are meaningless , and you are in a big room.

I had a high-current 100 wpc integrated amp that needed to be further augmented to get the FORESTs to their max. I added a matched 100 wpc power amp to make the system bi-amped (not biwired) to get them to open up to their best. Intuitively this predicated doubling up on quality build cables.

SPEAKER CABLES:

the FORESTs are wired internally with their own TOTEM TRESS wires, which are silver plated-over-OCC Cu models ( essentially a proxy or clone of CHORD RUMOURs).
If it’s high-end added extension or “brightness” you want, then silver over Cu is what they crave, I experimented with a sh*t load of brands and models, and the upper frequencies were lacking until either a TOTEM TRESS or similar silver plated all-occ proxy (that would expected to be “brighter” ) was inserted for the upper frequency drivers. Van den Hul , especially their hybrids , was the poorest speaker cable performers for me.

Curiously , biamping them with all- OCC CU quality build speaker cables on the woofers was noticeably better in my system, rather than continuing to use silver plated TRESS for the bass drivers. TRESS for the woofers was a noticeable step down than quality build all-Cu options. Much thicker all-Cu was the ticket here.

FWIW …. choose wisely.

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