Totem Sttaf


I'm currently auditioning a pair of Totem Sttaf speakers. I've read so many good things about them, but I'm not particularly impressed. Their voicing, to my ears, seems to employ certain tricks to enhance the sense of imaging. The bass, while many say is strong for the speaker's size, sounds loose and undefined. The soundstage stays strictly between the speakers; I hardly ever hear it extend beyond. Depth is also not that great. Overall, they seem to lack the same natural sound that my LSA1 monitors put forth. It might be a bit unfair to compare imaging of a floor stander versus a monitor, but even for a floor stander, I'm not that impressed with the Sttaf's imaging. The sense of imaging all seems to come from a slightly enhanced treble; imaging in the midrange seems not quite as clear.

Maybe my ears are pushing my tastes beyond my wallet. But I think I can do better for the money, considering the Sttaf's $1800 retail price. I should also note that I have a small 11x11 listening room, so finding speakers that work is a challenge too. That's why I considered the Totems.
jwglista

Showing 3 responses by ghosthouse

Jwglista-
I wondered whether your Staffs were fully run-in while reading your original post. If my experience with Totem Forests is anything to go by, I'd expect things will improve over another 50-100 hours. The bass on the Forests was mostly MIA when I first got them. That is no longer the case. What does the Totem site say about breaking in the Staffs?
Jw & Bd - yup...break in time from the Totem site is less for the Sttafs than what they recommend for the Forests. Still, for me, the Forests seemed to take much longer than the listed hours to come into their own. Maybe that will be true for the Sttafs too. I have owned the Forests for almost 7 years now and still experiment from time to time with placement in my smallish listening alcove. I came across a photo of Vince B's. set up for Forest Signatures at a recent show. From the photo it was evident he had them pretty close together (<6 ft?). Another thing that helped me was to put them on 2" maple plinths from Timber Nation. These in turn are on heavy 18x18" Travertine tiles. Stabilized the speakers very well given the Berber carpet with padding that's on the floor.