Grant Fidelity Audio - Read Only

[LarryC]

[r3cc0s]

Howdy Larry,

Totem are line of fantastic speakers purpose built by their creator Vince. I'd be hard pressed to say that any one is worse than each other than the fact that they are more specific to the application they are attempting to fulfill.

I've heard the line up from what I own, the Arros, through to the MANI-2s through the same amplification through their retailers K&W & A&B sounds

My old setup consisted of totem hawks and a conrad johnson CAV-50 (el34 based) and the same source of the Jolida JD100A

From switching to the A-88, I found the grip, dynamics and headroom I was missing from the EL-34 based Conrad Johnson.
I thought I was in "music" heaven at that point.
Coupled with some new power cables and other cable tweaks, the setup was quite nice, but even I had to admit, it still sounded a bit bloated.

Then once day, I came along A&B sounds who were clearing out their Totems, and I managed to pick up a set of their Arros for an incredible price.

Since that day, I never looked back and have since pawned off my Hawks on CAM

The Arros "to me" are their best sounding speakers for finesse, imaging and tonal accuracy (IMO --- not necessarily the viewpoint of others, such as Ian )
They have such a small profile and yet with proper room placement, they deliver incredible bass. The silk tweeter to me is brilliant, with incredible speed & pace but never with the shrillness of metal ones.

But, and there is always a but, their dynamics I would say will tend to compress if driven over 92-95db...
It's just the limitations of the small drivers.

In regards to the note that was passed on by Totem, the speakers will operate mostly over 8ohms 90% of the time but will reach an impedance dip to 4ohms at the really low frequencies.
The A-88 has since been handling this load off the 8 ohm taps with great results and in class "a" mode has has more than sufficient power and pace to handle the impedance swings. However the truth is, if you use the speakers on the full transformer runs (8ohms, as opposed to the 4ohm taps which are half runs), you will push the KT88s harder, resulting in more heat and lessened life.
However I'm a bit of a "tube" roller and am willing to sacrifice tube life for sound.


BTW -- A&B might not be in business where you are, but if they are , try to take advantage of them while you can.

[r3cc0s]

Oh & forgot to mention

With the exception of perhaps these models:

Arro, Staff, Hawk, Rainmaker and their Mite-Ts

Totems are generally hard to drive speakers and usually don't mate to tubes unless you have a substantial amplifier such as Ian's RITA or one with like power.

Even my Arro's required the power of the A-88 to drive adequately, as even the EL34 CAV-50 couldn't cut it.

[LarryC]

Hi RC - thanks for the reply. Sorry I didn't respond earlier. There is an A&B near me (Edmonton/south side) and I was auditioning the Hawks and the Arros.

I found the Arros lacking the bass, and though fantastic for jazz, acoustic, and classical, I didn't find them quite as engaging for Rock and blues. Don't get me wrong, the still sounded nice and IMO (also listened to Sttaf and Rainmakers) they were my favourite Totem speaker.

The Hawk I found more neutral, but the upper mids/treble were more laid back than the Arro (also smoother). Much more bass though, and so I was working on a deal for a pair of demo's (in maple).

However, while listening to the 'totem' test disk, I found that there were things in preferred on the Arro, and since the Arro was a lot cheaper, I thought I'd end up with them, despite the fact they didn't do Rock/Blues as well as other genre's.

However, in my last auditioning session (4th time there), I had them put another speaker into the mix. This was the last pair (demo's) of the Energy Veritas 2.2i's. Rather substantial bookshelves with a separate mid range dome to go along with their tweeter and hypedrive bass woofer.

Wow - did they sound incredible on the 'Totem' disk. Even the salesman, who'd never listened to them before, was floored at how they sounded.

Basically, you take the detail and forwardness (in a good way) of the Arro's, add the bass and the sweet sounding mid of the Hawk, and of course subtract the "Totem" sound (Energy's were more neutral) and wham, there's the Veritas 2.2i's.

So, we boxed them up and I took them home to try on my A-88. To be honest, they were more (a lot more) than what I wanted to spend. However, since I was seriously considering making an offer on the Hawks, which would have been a few hundred more than the Veritas's, and snce I liked the Veritas sound (and bass) a lot better than the Hawk, I just jumped it.

I haven't started really critically listening to my A-88 yet as it's still breaking in (I only have about 25 hours or so on it now). However, since the Veritas was more than I wanted to spend (and I had the entire Labour Day weekend to 'auditiion' them in my home with the A-8 my intent was to glean what I could from the A-88 and return the speakers on Labour Day monday.

Not a chance, man do those Veritas's sound sweet with the A-88. The Veritas is a power hungry speaker too, but not as much as the Totems. I find that even at a low volume (around 9:30/10:00 on triode mode) there's lots of juice to bring out all the details on this speaker, the sweetness, and dynamics of the recording. These Veritas's have now found a permanent home as my speaker of choice with the A-88. However, between work and work at home (shed building, deck building, fence building) I've not had a lot of time with them yet. Just enough to know they aren't going back.

This winter may be long and cold (haven't heard to be honest) but it will be a warm and relaxing one while I spend most of my free time with the A-88 and the Veritas's. Watch for my A-88 review probably in December sometime (by then the amp will have broken in and would have gone through the majority of my listening material).

I'd still like to hear the Arro's on it. I'm sure they sound great too, but I couldn't pass up on the Veritas's.
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[igrant]

Had to google Energy Veritas 2.2i's to see what they are. Wow, read a review where someone said he ditched his beloved Maggies (1.6's) for them. Thats like pulling teeth, must be quite something. Energy like most speaker companies have built some winners.

Well done to let your ears decide.

Ian
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[r3cc0s]

It's been a while, but I've heard the Veritas series from about four years ago, which I believe happen to be both the bookshelf 2.2s and the 2.4s and found them to be a very nice speaker.

The Veritas line is in line with Paradigm's Signatures and Monitor Audio's Gold GS line and are fabulous

I recall them being driven off of a Rotel multi-channel power amplificaiton setup and in Stereo mode sounding incredibly detailed and with a nice lively presentation.

I didn't commit to them as I fell in love with my specific model of the Totem but again, I'm agnostic as there are so many good speakers out there...


Congradulations and nice to know that they are a good match for the A88

[LarryC]

Thanks R3 - so far so good. Ian is sending me the CD327 to demo through the CAM threads (via other demo'ers) and can't wait to hear the player with the A-88 on the Veritas.

A&B sound closed a few more stores in B.C. and had a really crazy sale on this weekend. My friend picked up a Yamaha DVDS2700 for me. It plays SACD, DVD-Audio, and is an upconverting player. It's supposed to be a very good audio transport and so far from what I've heard I have to agree. It will be good to put it up against the CD327 once I get it, as both are in the same price range - MSRP to MSRP (the DVDS2700 retails for $999 but A&B was selling it at $179, couldn't resist at that price).

I need to take holidays now so I can properly review all this new equipment I have. Surprised my wife hasn't killed me yet
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It's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it

[igrant]