CES 2009

Whenever I think of Totem Acoustics, I tend to associate the Montreal-based company with relatively affordable high-performance speakers like the Model One and The Forest. But designer and founder Vince Bruzzese has attempted to reach for the stars with his floorstanding WInd design ($12,500/pair, according to the cryptic spider scratchings in my reporter's notebook) . Acquisition of a new CNC wood-working machine has allowed him to update the Wind, and at CES, Totem was showing the latest version, finished in high-gloss automotive paints. (The speaker shown with Vince is finished in "De Tomasso Blue.")

While the tweeter is still a SEAS aluminum-dome unit (used only in the Wind), the other drivers have been updated. The Alfa Romeo Red-finished WInds in the company's display room were driven by all-Ayre electronics—C-7xe CD player, KX-R preamp, MX-R monoblocks—and reproduced the room-busting bass on Kanye West's "Love Lockdown" as convincingly as they did the midrange on an acappella vocal arrangement of "Come Together." Nice. Very nice.