Stand Loudspeaker Reviews

Listening
I collect black discs from the early 1950s because back then the vinyl was thick and heavy and its labels and covers used superior quality inks with super-saturated colors, often with gold or silver metallic lettering. My favorites among these classic beauties are discs made in Britain by EMI, Decca, and Argo. Lately, I've developed a special fondness for mono Argos pressed in England during the late '50s to early '60s. Their sound has a burnished gleam I find uniquely appealing.

On the first day of my Totem Element Fire auditions, I played my favorite composer, Béla Bartók, on a blue-label Argo disc from 1956 (Argo RG 89). When I used the transducer combo of Audio-Technica's ART20 MC cartridge and the Totem Element Fire V2 loudspeakers to play Bartók's Contrasts for Piano, Violin, and Clarinet, I was rewarded with terse well-formed bass drum sounds that went low (possibly to 30Hz) and made this wild Bartók sound sharp and bold and moving about rhythmically like Mondrian's famous painting, Broadway Boogie Woogie. This new deeper bass made Bartók's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion feel wilder and larger with way more jolt and suck-me-in powers than it did with the Falcons. Think bold and expansive. But also neutral and composed.

Playing the Bartók, the Fires' soundspace was not only wider than the Falcons', but more liquid looking. Beyond its steady and correct tones, and precision soundstage mapping, the Totem's best trait was its glassless, grainless, eye-grabbing transparency. This level of see-into-ness is what we pay extra for, and surely, what Vince Bruzzese designed the Torrent woofer to accomplish. When the Element Fire V2s weren't playing music, it was the aesthetic quality of their transparency that lingered in my memory.

With about 50 hours on the Fires, I fell under the spell of Barbara, a chanteuse (1930–1997) who was popular in France from the 1950s into the '70s. It was Barbara that forced me to smoke Gauloises and listen to Serge Gainsbourg. Her songs are the work of a master cabaret artist (like Judy Garland or Edith Piaf) who could stun an audience with a silent stare. I love everything about Barbara's style, but the best thing I learned from her was the importance of sitting still and listening intently. Her music commands that form of attention.

Listening to Barbara's 1966 album Dis, quand reviendras-tu? (16/44.1 FLAC, CBS/Qobuz) through the Totem Element Fires put me right back in college with my collar up trying to be cool like Serge (footnote 1). What I enjoyed most was how the Totem Element Fire's transparent depths allowed me to sit still, exhale deeply, listen intently, and have sexy French dreams.

When I refer to the Element Fire's transparency, I want to emphasize how this clarity has a unique feel that is different (texture and viscosity-wise) from speakers like my Falcon LS3/5a or the Genelec G Three I reviewed in 2022. The Totem's transparency is more grainless, magic mushroom organic than the Falcon's, and less bright and electrically charged than Genelec's. The Element Fire's transparency reminded me of those seductive silent spaces I experience with DS Audio's photo-optical cartridges.

Compared to the 1997 Model 1
Almost humorously, when I switched from Totem's Fire V2s to my 1997 Totem Model 1s, I was loaded up on "expectation bias." I was certain the 1s would sound rubber-coned, and less sharply focused and transparent than my Falcons and the Element Fires.

Which they did. But the impact of those shortcomings was minimal and easy to ignore. What I was not prepared for was how bright and awake and full-tilt punchy-danceable these older boxes were. I was like, whoa! These plucky things can rock and bop and skiffle. And make me pull out my Meters records. The Model 1s played thicker and grayer and less transparent than the Fires, but it didn't matter, the 1s projected this bopping kind of energy that kept my mind zeroed in on how artists were executing their performances. And that for me was proof: Totem's Model 1 stands the test of time.

Compared to the DeVore Fidelity O/93
I've had a pair of 10 ohm DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/93s for 10 years. Their 10" paper cones match my 15 ohm Falcons in their ability to perform with low-power, no-feedback amplifiers like my reference Elekit TU-8900. But to my surprise, Falcon's Gold Badges and DeVore's Orangutans both respond brilliantly to high power. With the John Curl–designed Parasound Halo A 21+ amplifier, both speakers achieved a 20% deeper, more architecturally rendered soundspace with more eye-popping detail. The longer I use this amp, the more I appreciate the refined elegance of its speaker-pleasing authority.

Because it felt so right, I used the Parasound A 21+ for all of the above described listening. It imbued Totem's Element Fire with an elegant and authoritative character. It made details glimmering and delightful while showcasing a deep, wide-angle view of the goings on inside recordings.

With the same amp and Cardas Clear Beyond cables, and the same recorded program, DeVore's Orangutans sounded more of-the-earth than the Element Fires, which rendered a more wide-screen Blade Runner–type spectacle. I say this because, compared to the wood-boxed paper-coned silk-tweetered DeVores, the Totem's extreme clarity emitted a strong hi-fi vibe that I attributed to the material nature of its cabinet, its synthetic-coned Torrent bass driver, and the sonic proclivities of its 1" titanium-dome tweeter.

The more I listened, pondered, and compared, the more both speakers sounded like what they are made of. Both preserved natural tones, but the Totem's tones felt crisper, more contrasty, more audiophile "neutral." The DeVore's tones had softer, papery edges. More hesitant momentums. I see this as a result of how the O/93's 10" cone gets a little vague and grainy around 3kHz, while the Element Fires sailed through that region with locked-on focus and no glare or grain.

These two speakers cost the same but are not in competition because each will appeal to a different type of listener. The DeVores play crisp and sparkly with single-ended 300B amplifiers, the Totems do not. The Totems need high-octane class-A. These are two different cults.

On the Fires, I tried low-power Elekit tubes and two different First Watt amps with drab, disappointing results. The only amp that lit them up and exposed their radical transparency was Parasound's $4199 Halo A 21+. A strongly recommended combination.

Conclusion
Totem Acoustic's Element Fire V2 excelled at The Three Ts: tone, tempo, and transparency. But of those traits, it was the Fire's top-tier transparency that struck the most awe.

Obviously, Totem's crossover-less woofer is responsible for pumping up midrange presence and soundstage volume, while adding a full octave of bass below what I get from my Falcons or my 1997 Model 1s. These abilities combined to make recordings present larger, clearer, and more dynamically charged than they did through my Falcons or DeVores. A brilliant design by a tall wizard.

Bravo, Vince Bruzzese!

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Footnote 1: See youtube.com/watch?v=nUE80DTNxK4.