Totem Forest Signature, Part 10
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| Posted on June 29, 2024 at 00:35:33 | ||
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Posts: 7739
Location: Bay Area Joined: December 11, 2000 |
Totem Acoustic were formed in 1987. The photo below of San Francisco was taken in the late-1980s. Notice that the elevated Embarcadero Freeway still existed, efficiently getting traffic into and out of Chinatown.  In Spring 1987, as a high school sophomore, I had just a handful of friends, mostly guys. We loved to go out, and play basketball, football, and softball. Alas, we struggled to get the numbers needed to play the latter. And that included our little brothers (for those of us who had them). During the Fall 1987 semester, some of my guy friends stopped coming out. Those of us who remained grew increasingly desperate, for more bodies. We started to get our kid sisters (for those of us who had them) to come out. Initially, Totem only made one product, the Model 1 minimonitor. The Model 1's small dimensions kind of reminded you of your little brothers, sisters, or even pets.  Through my roles as Homeroom Rep and low-level club officer, I got to meet others. The freshmen class had a few short and nerdy girls, who were not in cliques. So I was able to befriend some of these "strays," and even recruit them to join us in basketball, football, and softball. These girls would parlay academic excellence into really good careers. Sigh, who would have known then, that for us subpar-to-mediocre guys, this type of girl would become our future wife and mother of our child(ren)? If you've seen me or my guy friends, you know that we were not physically or athletically gifted. We had short guys, so the girls were about the same height. Heck, Phil's sister, Judy, was a little taller than Phil himself. Phil, Little Timmy, and Perry were stumped. They couldn't figure out why our girls struggled to make that throw across the diamond; have even warning track power; shoot jumpers from anywhere beyond the free throw line; reach out to make a catch; and kick a football.  In the late-80s, we did not take too many photos, because of the cost. You had to wait until you used up the roll of film. Then you had to get that film developed. After all that, many of the photos turned out poorly, like the one above at North Beach Playground (now called Joe DiMaggio Field). I think it was in Spring 1988, when Perry and his kid sister were sitting on the ground. Our leadoff hitter, Little Timmy, hit a bloop double. Karen was up next, and hit a blooper to right field. Little Timmy was so appreciative of Jules, our third base coach, who held him up. He was able to score, when I hit a sac fly. Perry and his sister were about the same size. They were still sitting side-by-side on the ground, while Little Timmy had come in to score. Perry and his sister reached out their arms, to high-five Little Timmy. It was then, that Little Timmy noticed that Perry had broader shoulders than his sister. And then, when you squeezed Perry's arm, and his sister's arm, you confirmed that Perry's arm had more muscle, than his sister's. And that's why Perry could throw a ball harder than his sister could. But hey, that's how you, as an audiophile, got better at discerning differences among products.  In 2007, Totem turned 20. To commemorate this, they came out with a turbo-charged, limited edition version of their original minimonitor, and named it "The One." After listening to the Beasite Boys' "Root Down," Totem made The One in a so-called Root Brown color.  In Spring 2010, I signed up to become an enumerator for the Census. In my city, we had a weird combination of (expected) college kids and (unexpected) under-employed and unemployed professionals. Once assigned to neighborhoods, we enumerators would meet in small groups of up to 4.  One time, two women and Alex (late-40s, with a blonde ponytail) met at my house. Everyone thought that Alex was White, but he identified as Native American. He perked up, when he saw my Totem The One. He excitedly said that he lived near the San Leandro Marina, and had Totem's floorstanding Forest loudspeaker.  I replied that, after my wife and I renovated our house, our first speaker was a Totem Forest in maple. Alex shook his head, "No way," and insisted that the next round of Census meetings take place at his house. Alex lived alone, and didn't have as much stuff as my family. Thus, his living room had fewer obstructions than mine. The sliding glass door, which led to a small backyard, faced west. Thus, a sliver of the afternoon sun pierced into the living room. And with the sliding glass door open, you could feel the early evening air, which came in over the Bay, cool the place down. The walls were off-white, the hardwood floors were medium brown, and the backyard ground cover was light green and straw-colored. His Totem Forest was in cherry. With a few large feathers on the wall, this was the best I'd ever seen a cherry Forest. When Alex played the Doobie Brothers, Eagles, and Steely Dan, they sounded as good as when I had the maple Totem Forest. But oh man, when Alex's system played Prefab Sprout's "Sweet Gospel Music," it was pure magic. The bass caused Alex to remark, "Wow, did Steely Dan produce this?" This caused me to think about that Census, and all the people I came across, who wanted to be counted. It also caused me to think back to 1987-88, when Little Timmy did not care, if our new friends were small girls, who may not have been very good at team sports. He welcomed everyone, and said, "Each and every body counts."  In 2012, Alex moved out of state. Also at this time, Totem turned 25. This time around, Totem turned their attention to the Forest, and came out with the upgraded "Signature" version. As of this writing, both the original Forest and the upgraded Forest Signature are in production. Readers have been patiently waiting for posts comparing the Totem Forest Signature against other speakers. So we will start off with The One. And we assume that we are using a high-quality system, in an "average-sized" rectangular room. Totem's The One strikes you as "the little engine that could," or one of the nerd girls who is energetic and enthusiastic. She can do the "fold, tuck, and roll" to her jeans, use eye black (or your school color), or be your hockey team's first skater on the ice. In absolute terms, The One shrinks image size. However, they are still scaled nicely, so eyes closed or open, you can "see" the images. Said images obviously are not going to have mass, but they are still chunky and chewy (if bite-sized). It's kind of like squeezing a nerd girl's calf. There's still enough sparkle, to maintain the contrast between music and background space/silence. On 28"-30" stands, The One does make it seem as though the performers are standing. If you use shorter 24" stands, the illusion of standing performers is reduced, but you do gain slightly more reinforcement from the floor. Thus, the music subjectively feels as if it has more body and substance.  Tonally, the Forest Signature is not as finely scaled. That's on account of its wickedly good bass reproduction. If you optimize for bass, then the mids and treble appear a notch too small. But if you optimize for the mids and treble, then the bass sticks out. Although the Forest Signature's mids are clean, there's a reduction in the contrast between music and silence. And no matter how we've tried positioning and adjusting, in averaged-sized rooms, the Forest Signature does not have as expansive of a soundstage as it should. Although The One and Forest Signature share the same metal dome tweeter, we feel that it's implemented better in The One. The One does a better job of preserving cymbals' timbre and shine. OTOH, cymbals via the Forest Signature are fast, with good bite, but kind of dry and gray in color. For such compact dimensions, the Forest Signature has excellent bass. There's such control, that you can "see" the bass notes, "see" the fingers on strings. Basslines are kept separate from kick drums. Thet latter are propulsive, while the former have pulse. The Forest Signature goes deeper than The One, so there's power and movement. If you watch modern-day movies, with their digitally-synthesized bass, look out! No, it's not a full-sized Tyrannosaurus Rex, but the bass is still like a small elephant coming at you. Back in high school, the nerd girls loved adult contemporary music. But don't assume that they were always wussy; the nerd girls would then shock you, by busting out to heavy metal. The Forest Signature's bass provides a sense of body, sorely needed on Glenn Medeiros' "Lonely Won't Leave Me Alone" and "Watching Over You." That same bass prowess finally makes sense of Great White's "Rock Me." That bass causes my friend Scylla to stomp harder, on Whitesnake's "Fool For Your Loving '89." That bass causes my wife to headbang and hip check harder, on Testament's "Eerie Inhabitants." At all volume levels, the Forest Signature has an ease and poise, which The One can't match. While The One is like a zippy sports car, the Forest Signature is more explosive. Since some of the nerd girls were in the high school orchestra, they appreciate this explosiveness, on symphonic works. If you listen to Broadway musicals, The One tends to emphasize the lyrics. But by being more full-bodied and dynamic, the Forest Signature tends to emphasize the drama, and sweep you into the performance. Take the Phantom Of The Opera. With The One's imaging, contrast, but lack of deep bass, it's as if the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have grabbed the Phantom, slapped him silly, and knocked some sense into him. With the Forest Signature's smoothness with dynamics, coupled with bass prowess, it's more like you yourself are heading down the Parisian sewers, under the theater, and you don't know how the love triangle will be resolved. If you audition both The One and Forest Signature, you'd probably nod, that they are Totems. They are not dead, bloated, slow, or artificially warm. Clearly, The One is intended to turn a smaller room into a fun little arcade. The Forest Signature wants you to get over the disappointment, about not having the room/space for larger and more ambitious loudspeakers. It proportionately scales-down the music, so that it is appropriate for mid-sized rooms. Assuming these qualities exist upstream, the Forest Signature has a pulse and heartbeat, missing from the vast majority of loudspeakers. -Lummy the Loch Monster
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| RE: Totem Forest Signature, Part 10, posted on June 29, 2024 at 04:31:56 | |
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Posts: 217
Joined: October 14, 2021 |
You didn't mention the Totem Mani-2. The pictures are beautiful.
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