Home Speaker Asylum

General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

Totem Sky, Part 9

"I went to a party last Saturday night
I didn't get laid, I got in a fight"

-Lita Ford, Kiss Me Deadly

Totem Acoustic got their start in 1987-88, just in time to watch, and take part in, heavy metal's late-80s explosion. Around Valentine's Day 1988, Lita Ford's "Kiss Me Deadly" came out, and ROCKED! Manager Sharon Osbourne selected Pat Benatar's rhythm section (check out Benatar's "Invincible"), to record (not tour). "Kiss Me Deadly" was actually driven by the drums and keyboards.

Anyway, my friend Marcus was short, but fleet of foot. In softball, that made him good at playing the outfield, tracking down balls hit out there. At the plate, he had no power, but excellent bat control. Pencil him in at #2, to move the runner over, start rallies, and set the table for power hitters. Oh, we did not have any power hitters. Oops.

My friend Trina had a stick figure, and was, um, economical in her movements. In basketball and football, she set good screens. And because she did not move, she could not be called for penalties/fouls. In softball, Trina liked to stand in the outfield, cross her arms, and wait for balls to come to her.

Maybe it was spring break 1988, when a whole bunch of us met at San Francisco's West Sunset Playground. After playing basketball, we moved our stuff to one of the upper fields. As we were lining up our stuff along the sideline(s), there was a commotion in right-center. One of our girls said, "Oooo, oooo, fight!"

Mitts fluttered, some cuss words were said, and bodies wrestled to the grass. Ah, but when we looked closer, it was just Marcus and Trina, who never did get along with each other. So the rest of us sighed, trudged to the outfield, and had to break it up. We separated the two, gave each a chance to explain him/herself. Best I could tell, it started with Trina going out to centerfield, from whence she could see/track down flyballs best. But Marcus wanted to play CF, and directed Trina to move to RF. She refused, they called each other names. She called him a "bitch," and said, "Your pussy stinks."

That set him off, and Marcus said, "I'd kick your nads, but your eggs are no good anyway." That set off Trina, and I'm not sure who threw a mitt first. At least they didn't throw haymakers, but they tackled each other. Trina tried to get Marcus in a headlock, and punch his head. As we were pulling them apart, Trina yelled, "You fight like a little bitch," which, of course, ticked off Marcus even further. He started to strike back at Trina, but ended up hitting some of us.

The Marcus-Trina kerfuffle reminds us audiophiles about amps and the Totem Sky.




If you have the mirror-like amps from Simaudio's Evolution series, you will get the most out of the Sky. But these electronics cost several times that of the Sky itself, so they are not a likely pairing.



Kickin' it old school! In the 80s, we had a dual-well cassette deck, graphic equalizer, NAD receiver, and HK CD player. At the time, Totem only made one product, the Model 1. Because of the Model 1's rolled-off top octave, you could use it with mass market gear, and still get decent and involving sound. Because the current-production Sky has a flat treble response, you have to be careful, if you use it with mass market amplification.



My favorite (I did not say, "best") amp for the Totem Model 1 Signature was the AudioPrism Debut (later upgraded to Mk. II status). The amp originally came with warm-sounding Svetlana EL-34s. The Debut's manual said to bias at 45mA. But for a much-needed cooler and leaner sound, we biased at 40mA. The M1S sounded better with the Electro-Harmonix EL-34, which had a more extended and transparent treble.



In the early-2000s, I obtained Mullard xf4 EL-34s, from 1979 and 1980. My then-girlfriend, TLS, was amazed at how the Mullard EL-34s (no other changes were made) let through so much more of the music's textures. The Sky has enough resolution, and will love it, if you use genuine Mullard EL-34s. Geez, in 2001, the Mullards were 20 years-old. Now, as we write this post, 2001 was 20 years ago! Getting old...



Maybe it was Andy at Vintage Tube Services, who got all giddy about the GE 6CA7. This guy cooed that it was "like a 6550." The 6550, of course, was a king of power tubes. While the more powerful-sounding GE 6CA7 was not a good match for the Totem M1S, it is, in a linear-sounding amp, wonderful on the Sky. The small-sounding Sky likes the bigger images afforded by the GE 6CA7. If you listen to "Kiss Me Deadly," you'll come out swinging!



Okay, we are back to amps costing more than the Sky itself. One of my audiophile acquaintances had the Sky before I did. He absolutely loved the BAT VK-300x SE integrated amp on the Sky. He wrote, "Everybody loves the amp's layered, distanced, and transparent soundstage depth. It gives the music both breathing room and a place setting. Also, the BAT paints woody and organic textures, offsetting some of the Sky's harshness."

Though this guy has several loudspeakers more expensive than the Sky (including Totem's own Hawk, which will be covered in a future post), he "Can't wait to get the Sky back!"

So, did Marcus and Trina kiss and make up? Nope. That was the last time Marcus ever came out to play sports (or do anything else, for that matter) with us.

-Lummy The Loch Monster



Edits: 03/19/21

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Topic - Totem Sky, Part 9 - Luminator 18:40:33 03/19/21 (28)

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