Some Technical Talk

It's been quieter than usual.

JA's holed up in his dark office, agonizing over an equipment report. Elizabeth and I have been bent over "Recommended Components" blurbs all day. I've become tired — my eyes can only catch so many bad breaks and ugly indentations — and so have spent the last ten minutes browsing Komegashi's online menu. I don't usually drink sake, but the idea of it now, with you, is wonderful. A hot lover roll might be nice, too. We'll sit by the windows and watch the boats dance in the wind. The lights across the water will blink their little songs.

I don't care how much money we spend tonight, honey; this was payday. I remember reading something Hemingway said about keeping track. I really can't recall too much, so I shouldn't even mention it. He said something like: it's not a party if you're keeping track of your cash. Something like that.

We'll keep track later. Tonight, we'll have a party.

We'll then walk home through the cold and listen to the hi-fi. We've got new speakers to try out; the cherry Totem Arros are waiting for us. I know you'll love them. They offer that deep bass that's so important to you. And they're small, made to fit nicely in these little apartments of ours. They say you can place one over here, and the other way over there, and they'll still create a wide soundstage with solid, lifelike images. I don't know how it works. But I'll make up some technical talk, if that's what makes you happy.

This weekend's forecast warns of snow, you know. It's becoming awful cold. If the wind blows too hard through our forgiving windows, perhaps we'll light up the Moscode. The tubes will keep us warm. We can sit down on the floor and let the music blanket us. Let's listen to that song you like.

I'm tired, but not too tired.

COMMENTS
Monty's picture

If you decide to keep the Arros, let me know. I have an extra pair of grills for mine that you can have if you decide they are keepers. You won't want to listen to them with the grills on, but if you have guests (or kids) come to visit, they are mandatory. I'm not really sure how far apart these things can go because my room is pretty small. But, I know they like to go wide. These lil Arros just keep sounding better with time and I think the crossovers are pretty well designed because I think they sound better with full range cables as opposed to utilizing the bi-wire option. I tried bi-wiring and gained a little bottom end, but the focus and soundstage narrowed...not a good trade to my ears. I also preferred running the cables with the + connected to the bottom and the - connected to the top in a diagnal fashion. You might also consider pulling them out away from the rear wall as far as your room will allow 'cause they have a tremendous sense of depth that is addicting as Hell. 5 lbs on top until you fillem.

Monty's picture

Oh, and a couple more things, lol, a very slight toe-in or none at all seems to agree with them. They sound much better after weeks of current...seems to take a little of the etch off and fill in the lower mids. They get even BIGGER!

Stephen Mejias's picture

In a very brief listening session," the first thing that I noticed was that they seemed a bit more aggressive than the DeVores; almost as though they were shouting. But ""shouting"" is too harsh of a description. They were just a bit more in my face. Sounds didn't feel as controlled as they are with the DeVores. Perhaps this is something that cools off a bit after some break-in?>I also preferred running the cables with the + connected to the bottom and the - connected to the top in a diagnal fashion.<Could you explain this to me more", Monty? I'm not sure what you mean. What does this do, and how do you do it?
Thank you very much.

Monty's picture

If your speaker cables are full range with only two connectors, then you simply connect the red+ cable to the lower red+ terminal on the Arro. The black- cable would go on the top black- terminal in a diagnal fashion. This would be as opposed to simply connecting the cables on the bottom red and black speaker terminals. You still use the provided jumper, you are just routing the cable a little differently. I'm not sure why this makes a difference, but I think it spreads the stage out a little better with more definition. As for the aggressiveness, the Arros are revealing and are very source and component finicky and they do take a long time to settle down. I do think they have a 2 or 3 db tilt around 4k that will fatigue if your upstream components are also bright or your discs have pronounced siblants. I think you will find the Moscode hybrid is a much better match for these speakers. This starts getting into system matching components where someone might want components that are slightly to the left of...

Monty's picture

...of neutral or a little dark, such as tube gear or very good solid state. I swapped out my Rotel amp which was too bright for the Arros with a Portal Panache and they worked very well together. I think the Arros need very neutral electronics, but not laid back gear as they are already a bit laid back and don't start sounding full until they hit 85db or higher...at least with rock and jazz types of recordings. Accoustic and classical music seems right at home. These speakers are good examples of the often used phrase," ""careful system matching and set-up"" are required to allow them to work their best. If you are using the MF gear", swap out the amp for the Moscode and I'll bet you get a completely different presentation. Try a wide variety of music with them and you might find as I did that they seem to be voiced with strings and horns as opposed to the human voice and piano. At least that is what I suspect.

Stephen Mejias's picture

This is great, Monty. Thanks very much for sharing your insight and observations. I'll give the diagonal cabling trick a try. And I'll also be sure to mess around with component matching.

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