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Speaker Asylum: REVIEW: Totem Acoustics Mani-2 Signature Speakers by Pat D

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REVIEW: Totem Acoustics Mani-2 Signature Speakers

24.230.192.3


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Model: Mani-2 Signature
Category: Speakers
Suggested Retail Price: $5400 Cdn.
Description: Two Way Mini Monitor
Manufacturer URL: Totem Acoustics
Model Picture: View

Review by Pat D ( A ) on December 08, 2003 at 23:18:57
IP Address: 24.230.192.3
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This is a smallish stand mount speaker, 8.5” X 16.5” X 12” according to the specifications weighing 23 pounds. In Canadian dollars, the list price is listed at just under $5400 in the 2003 Audio Ideas Guide Almanac, and it is apparently just under $4000 US. No one has reviewed the Totem Mani-2 here, so I thought I would provide my impressions.

I auditioned them at a friend’s house, quite a nice house. His Mani-2 Signature speakers were in the living room end of a good sized living/dining room area, placed on the appropriately tall Totem stands well away from the back and side walls. Sorry, I didn‘t measure height and distances from the walls, but it would‘ve seemed a bit strange. He also has the Totem subwoofer, but we mostly listened with it turned off. He drives the Mani-2’s full range and has the subwoofer underneath only. I am not sure this is the best arrangement for his set-up as I think I could get somewhat smoother deep bass using the low and high pass filters of a crossover. There seemed to be a moderate room resonance around 30-40 Hz (that‘s my best guess) in the listening position on the sofa. Nevertheless, the bass quality was quite good.

He drives them with a pair of Bryston 7B monoblocks, and uses a Sonic Frontiers preamplifier and CD player. This is a music system. The home theatre equipment is down in the basement.

Back in about 1985 I began using the Denon A New Releases Classical Sampler 1985/1986, Denon GES-9079, as one of the CDs I use for auditions because it has a variety of kinds of music on it which serve quite well to differentiate speakers. The recordings are mostly very good, though not the best, but my view is that whatever a speaker does to the sound it will do to any music so it is not necessary to always use the very best recordings. Anyway, since my speakers will be used with a great variety of recordings I look for speakers, which will sound good with most of them.

Band 9 has the first few minutes of Schubert’s 9th Symphony with Otmar Suitner conducting the Staatskapelle Berlin, and a very fine performance it is in my opinion. The upper strings in the orchestra can sound rough or too bright on many speakers, but not the Mani-2. Spacious image with good depth, good detail, which most good speakers will do, but the upper strings were smoother than with most, including the ESL-63‘s. There is loud passage starting about 1:10 in and with a particular climax at about 1:30, which should not sound too forward and harsh. This was the best I have heard it, very detailed, so that one can make out the different sections of the orchestra, which sound confused through most speakers.

Band 10 is an excerpt from Weber’s Der Freischütz with Hauschild and the Staatskapelle Dresden. I really don’t know what is going on. There is a rather good baritone whose lines are mostly counting up to 7 in German, the orchestra, a shot, a male chorus, stage noises, audience noises, all in good perspective. Band 11 is an excerpt from Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier with Vonk and the Staatskapelle Dresden, with bass Theo Adam and a soprano plus the orchestra, floor stomping and so on. The voices, orchestra, and stage noises sounded uncoloured and natural. The Mani-2’s threw a convincing wide, high and deep soundstage.

The owner is quite proud of the bass response of those small speakers. He used to have B & W 802 Matrix Series 2 speaker, which he is selling. If he and his wife moved into a smaller space, they would be too big. As well, they were no longer giving him what he wanted. To get the bass response and detail, he play them quite loud, whereas the Mani-2‘s sound just fine at lower volume levels and are if anything smoother. I concur that the Mani-2 Signature sounds nicer than the B & W. Matrix Series 2. Anyway, we tried the wonderful performance of Bach’s Passacaglia in C Major with Michael Murray at the great organ in Methuen Hall on Telarc CD-80049. This is a magnificent digital recording from 1979 made using Soundstream Digital Tape Recorder. The recording is very good indeed, and is one reason I don‘t accept the proposition that early digital recordings are all bad. The strong 16 Hz low C in the pedals is a good subwoofer tester. The Mani-2 produced reasonable account of the low C for such a small speaker, mostly doubling I think, but with some of the fundamental present, too. If you had never heard this with a big subwoofer, you might well think that was what was recorded. With the Totem subwoofer, considerably more of the fundamental came through, though still not the same as a good larger subwoofer such as my 15” Paradigm PW-2500 (no longer made), the big brother of the well-known PW-2200. Still, it was pretty satisfactory. The main ranks of the organ sounded excellent, of course, on this very dynamic recording.

Colin Davis’ Philips recording of the Mozart Requiem, Philips 420 353-2, has worked well for me as a test recording for mixed chorus, although the orchestra, particularly the upper strings are not particularly well recorded. The chorus in the Kyrie sounded very smooth and coherent. It’s a very exciting performance.

One nice thing about really good speakers is that I quickly forget about evaluating them and just listen to the music, although I bravely tried to keep to my methodology with a minute or so of Roger Whittaker, the first movement of Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata with Horowitz and a few other things. But mostly we just listened to some music. My friend played some older recordings by Leonard Warren and Maria Callas. Warren’s late 1940’s recording of “Di provenza il mar” from Verdi’s La Traviata is rather boxy, but the voice came through very clearly so that one could make out every word. I had early noted how clear some old vocal recordings came through my Quad ESL-63’s. I have long felt that the idea that old recordings don‘t sound good on fine speakers is a mistake. That nice flat midrange makes them come across more clearly and doesn‘t emphasize their faults. We listened to Callas’ performance of “Un bel di” from Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. We played the Jabberwocky movement from Deems Taylor’s Through the Looking Glass, Gerard Schwarz, Seattle Symphony, on Delos DE 3099. This is a superb recording and an excellent performance of this interesting but minor work. My friend had some gospel music by the Fairfield 5, with whom I am not familiar, and some cabaret music with Patricia O’Callaghan, who is excellent and very well recorded.

I played Ayako Hosokawa’s rendition of “Let’s go get stoned,” supported by The New Herd, from The Famous Sound of Three Blind Mice, vol. 3. on TBM CD 9003. My friend was quite impressed by the sound. The TBM recordings are superb. Some time ago, I looked in vain for them on the net, but now I easily found their web site. A few of their CDs are even available from Amazon.com

Stereophile has reviewed a couple of iterations of the Mani-2, first in 1996 and then in 2001, both of which can easily be found on their site. There is no indication that the latter is a review of the Signature version, but some may find the data useful anyway, though there are likely some differences. The horizontal frequency response and dispersion is very, very good. The vertical dispersion is narrower, about average, but should be adequate for most uses. The sensitivity is somewhat on the low side, about 84.5 dB with a 2.83 volt signal according to John Atkinson and the impedance gets down to about 3 ohms in the mid-bass, so it requires a good amplifier.

All in all, the Totem Mani-2 Signature is one of the finest speakers I have ever heard. It is even smoother than the Quad ESL-63, and no doubt will work well in environments too small for dipoles. We didn’t try to push them to their limits. They will play plenty loud enough for me, but for those who don’t care if they damage their hearing, a larger and more sensitive speaker might be more appropriate.

Whether it is a good value is another question. It is certainly expensive. I will have to see whether a similar level of performance can be obtained for considerably less cost. That being said, this is certainly a speaker I could live with happily, and I don’t say that very often. If a small monitor is acceptable, I would certainly recommend anyone looking for a high quality speaker to audition them.


Product Weakness: Fairly low sensitivity, current hungry speakers requiring fairly hefty amplifier for best results.
Product Strengths: Very smooth, wide dispersion mini-monitor speaker with a very low bass response, spacious and deep stereo image, gets the most out of recordings.


Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier: Bryston 7B-NRT
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): Sonic Frontiers
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Sonic Frontiers CDP
Speakers: Totem Thunder Subwoofer
Cables/Interconnects: Didn't ask. Irrelevant anyway.
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Classical, Jazz
Room Size (LxWxH): 30 x 13 x 9
Room Comments/Treatments: Living/dining room area
Time Period/Length of Audition: 2 hours
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): Didn't see any.
Type of Audition/Review: Friend's System
Your System (if other than home audition): Quad ESL-63 Speakers, Rotel RCD-965BX CD Player, Quad 44 Preamp,Quad 606 amplifier, Paradigm PW-2500 Subwoofer, Mirage LFX-1 Sub Crossover




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Topic - REVIEW: Totem Acoustics Mani-2 Signature Speakers - Pat D 23:18:57 12/8/03 ( 0)