Speaker Asylum

Posted by Luminator (A) on June 19, 2024 at 17:21:56

During the March 1993 Stereophile Show, May Audio staff were scrambling to find their volute prop. When this prop was placed on top of a 4-pillar Target speaker stand, the whole thing resembled an Ionic column. At least when I had visited the May Audio room, they did not have the prop. Be that as it may, the dinky Totem Model 1 was one of the show's few speakers, which did justice to popular music.

At the time, my friend ACS was a sophomore at UC Berkeley, and worked part-time at the San Francisco Union Square Victoria's Secret. She was all in favor, of making speaker stands look like Greco-Roman columns. Nearby Ultimate Sound would carry both Target and Totem.

Via Ultimate Sound, we auditioned two similarly-sized and -priced minimonitors: the ProAc Response One SC and Totem Model 1 Signature. Since both of these were bi-wireable, Ultimate Sound lent us an excellent Kimber BiFocal XL.

We ended up getting the Totem M1S in drop-dead gorgeous maple (above). We are upset, that Totem no longer use this beautiful maple, not just on the Forest Signature, but on any of their models. They've given no official explanation, for why they discontinued the maple finish.

Anyway, after buying the Totem M1S, I had no money left over for stands or speaker cables. Nevertheless, that Kimber BiFocal XL left a positive impression on us.

Versus the standard Forest, the Signature version adds a WBT mounting plate, which holds the two sets of gold-plated binding posts. You need to remove the (a) silver L-shaped paper clip, and (b) plastic plugs. The binding posts accept banana plugs, bare wire & pins (via a hole in the shaft), and spade lugs.

Due to the tight spacing of the binding posts, you most likely will have to use bananas on the top/tweeter posts.

In a future post, we will cover "single wire + jumper." For now, we turn our attention to bi-wire speaker cables (both internal and discrete).

AudioQuest Indigo/Indigo: In late 1993, my very first discrete bi-wire speakers cable was an AQ Indigo/Indigo. My uncle still has it. Back in the 1990s, he thought it was fine. And then in the 2000s, we stuck it, as we do with ALL of our cables, on an audiodharma Cable Cooker. My uncle was even more impressed.

On the Forest Signature, this AQ Indigo/Indigo possesses a sense of balance. It doesn't do any one thing particularly well, but it is not deficient, colored, or distorted. This is a nice starting point, and gives you an inkling, of what the FS can do.

Cardas Cross internal biwire: give the FS credit. It accurately reveals the Cross' "boppy" nature. Both images and music's movements are boppy.

In 1994, my second discrete biwire speaker cable was Kimber 4TC/4TC (back then, it had the blue-and-black color scheme). On the FS, the 4TC set is lean and splashy. If you truly have no money, start with the 4TC/4TC. Skip intermediate models, and wait until you can afford the expensive (but good!) speaker cables.

Kimber Carbon 8/Carbon 8: this is several significant steps up, from Kimber's own 4TC/4TC. Resolution, speed (but with control), background silence, and stability are improved. Still, there are losses in body, substance, and punching power. And, when you compare the Carbon 8 to others, the overall sound is still a bit fizzy.

Nordost Valhalla internal biwire: owners of the Totem FS seem to gravitate towards Nordost. But for all of the positives, listen and evaluate carefully. You may, over the long haul, not like the way the Valhalla adds a whitish grain, and then does not fully capture (a) image depth and (b) instrumental weight.

Shunyata Orion internal biwire: this was very good, on Totem's older Mani-2 Signature. You could argue that it's even better-suited for the FS. The Orion maintains image stability, resolution, and timing. On the FS, it's more about the music, than of the space. It's kind of a "headphone sound, but for your living room" presentation.

Tara Labs RSC Prime 1800: if, until this point, you've dabbled in budget speakers cables, the Prime 1800 will cause you to sit up and pay attention. The overall sound is competent and clean. There's a little more poise and elbow room. However. Tara Labs' higher-end models are even more transparent, clean, and (especially) resolving. Their lack of distortion allows more of a hall's or venue's acoustics and volume (height, width, and depth, not loudness) to "replace" your living room.

XLO Ultra12BW: the FS accurately reveals the U12BW's blockish images, full-bodied mid bass to upper midrange, but "airbrushing" of fine details. There's also a shortening of space/distance between said images.

Okay, if you have an averaged-sized room, but with quality electronics, the FS might have you pegging Kimber's BiFocal XL as "the bare minimum." The FS is that good, that it warrants such a speaker cable. The BiFocal XL presents a sense of "keeping it all together." There's nothing added, subtracted, or morphed, which will cause you, in everyday listening, to become restless or annoyed. While the BiFocal XL cannot scale the extremes, it shrugs its shoulders, and gets on with being fundamentally solid.

If your family plays video games, watches movies, flips to sporting events, wallows in old favorites, and yet seeks new/different music, the combination of BiFocal XL and Forest Signature is kind of "set and forget." You do not need to mess around with tweaks, props, and lingerie.

One of my audiophile acquaintances still has the internal bi-wire XLO Limited Edition LE-5BW. He says that it "doubles down" on what the Forest Signature does. The LE-5BW is slightly on the warm, dry, and powerful side. He says, "If your music calls for foot-stomping enthusiasm, this is the combo!"

He's thrown many amps at the FS, but it was the XLO LE-5BW, which "Told me that the Forest Signature is worthy of the upper crust speaker cables."

His experience with the FS reiterates that a speaker is at the mercy of the room and the upstream products, including the speaker cables.

-Lummy The Loch Monster