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In Reply to: RE: thoughts on upgrading my Totem M1S posted by jimgrocecfp@hotmail.com on August 24, 2014 at 16:16:19
...I have extensively and comprehensively reviewed (a) The One and (b) the Element Ember. I have indeed done comparisons to the M1S.Click on my moniker, go to my homepage. Search the tags for "Totem," and the tens of posts will show up.
If you keep everything the same, and then replace the M1S with The One, the treble will open up. This finally unlocks the air and space of the top 1/3 of the soundstage. It also has the effect of giving more breathing room for the mids and (upper) bass. Imaging becomes more discrete. And the bass range isn't as constricted.
The Element Ember is bigger than the M1S/The One, but is in a different league all together. With your Ayre gear, the Ember will shine. If you play, for example, OMD's English Electric, your guests will marvel at the tight, punchy, kick-butt reach in the bass. They will start looking for the mythical built-in subwoofer in the speaker stands.
In a 12x12 room, both The One and Element Ember will succeed. They can be close together, relatively near the wall behind them. They fire straight ahead, no toe-in.
-Lummy The Loch Monster.
Edits: 08/24/14Follow Ups:
Very nice blog. I have a couple of dealers nearby (my original dealre no longer carries Totem) so hopefully I can see these soon. Wondering about price on Element Ember?
..on Speaker Asylum, I created a post, listing all of my posts regarding the Totem Element Ember.
The Ember is only available in two colors: Ice white or Dusk black. They show up on the used market, and that's where I'd get a pair. But anyway, users who are used to and like Totem's wood veneers may or may not like the high-gloss "Design" finishes.
12x12 is a small room. By the time you add racks, equipment, furniture, said room becomes even more claustrophobic. Any speaker larger than the Ember will overload a 12x12 room with excess bass.
A 12x12 room doesn't allow for many guests. Well, back in college, our rooms were 12x12, and we packed 'em in during weekend parties. But I digress. The Ember is great for including a few other listeners. The Ember sounds fine from anywhere in the room, so those not in the "sweet spot" will still be able to enjoy the music.
Not sure if you have a video game console hooked up to your Ayre system. But if you do, video game sound comes across as very thrilling, via the Ember. Why? The Ember has the honest speed, accuracy, punch, and spirit, to keep up. So if you play those games where you do dance moves, you'll love the Ember. Just don't get carried away, and start knocking over your system :-)
Thanks for the info. I have small couch and one chair in the room and sometimes have aguest or two. It is mostly just me. Thanks for all of the great info, greatly appreciated.
you are bi-wiring them by connecting the main cables to the highs and the jumpers to the lows or vice versa. Having had the Totem Shaman for many years, instead of using jumper cables, I found that it sounded much better if you connect two separate speaker cable runs to them (see the attached photo).
Perhaps, you should try it to see if you like the sound...
If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing well
(Proverb)
Most veteran audiophiles are well aware that properly bi-wiring [this can be a discrete shotgun, with separate runs to woofer and tweeter posts; or it can be a specially-designed internal bi-wire model] gets the most out of the speaker.
Incidentally, when I reviewed the MIT Magnum M3.3bw, it was used extensively on Totem's The One.
However, many of my readers and target audience do not have such cables. Thus, whenever I review bi-wireable speakers, I cover the "single wire + jumper" permutations. In the case of the Element Ember and Fire, quite clearly, they perform more accurately when the speaker cable goes first to the woofer posts.
When I reviewed the Arro, Model 1 Signature, Hawk, The One, Forest, and Mani-2 Signature, these non-Element series models all preferred the single-wire going first to the tweeter post.
Did you play around with bi-wire permutations on the Shaman?
but, I didn't like the sound and I also use a single wire config. using the short run of Nordost Valhalla speaker cable as jumpers, the sound however, was much better than the bi-wiring configuration.What I have now is the best of both worlds where I use a pair of Transparent Audio Ultra speakers cables on the low end and MIT CVT MH 770 Twin terminators speaker cables on the top end and vice versa. The sound is very well balanced from top to bottom.
If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing well
(Proverb)
Edits: 08/25/14
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