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Totem Forest
Pulse, speed and dynamic contrasts all add up to a tingling “surprise factor” that borders on the surreal. Forest speakers bring forth a synergy between spatial cues, imaging and powerful dynamics that go beyond what is expected of “any speaker”.
Designed by Vince Bruzzese
Highly respected Canadian designer of many Audiphile Favourites.
In 1987, Vince Bruzzese was a Montreal schoolteacher who didn't like what he heard at his local audio stores. So he designed his first speaker, the Totem Model One, and the rest is history.
Today, Totem speakers are a proudly Canadian export, enjoyed by music lovers around the world.
Uses the best Danish drive units
The Forest is a two-way, floorstanding tower loudspeaker with two drive-units—a 1" SEAS aluminum-dome tweeter and, below that, an Acoustic Technology International (ATI) 6.5" midrange/bass driver. Why two way? Because two way speakers stand out in terms of soundstage and imaging.
Engineered Cabinet
The narrow, 3'-tall cabinet is less than a foot wide and a foot deep. Such a narrow profile helps optimize diffraction effects, and allows the drivers to more closely approximate a point source than might occur with a wide-baffle design. Bruzzese claims that small, rigid enclosures are less apt to store energy and radiate it later, leading to interference and blurring.
The Forest's cabinet, veneered on all six surfaces, appears to be very rigid, with a gracefully rounded front baffle with flush-mounted drivers and an angled rear baffle. The enclosure's sharply angled inner floor breaks up standing waves, and the joins are lock-mitered to create a monocoque structure. An internal full-plane cross-brace further strengthens the cabinet. Sure enough, when tapped, the Forest feels very dense. Humid-type gaskets, which remain in a fluid state, are used around the drivers to ensure both damping and decoupling.
The Forest comes equipped with Claws and Beaks, Totem's anti-resonance devices. The Claw is a self-centering ball-bearing floor interface and support, and the Beak Tuning Pod is a supercomputer-modeled device for providing more linearity in the bass. These beautiful, bullet-shaped devices, machined of aluminum, are said to tighten and damp the enclosure.
The midrange/bass unit's reflex port opens onto the rear panel, just above the four W.B.T. gold-plated speaker terminals (for biwiring). At the bottom of the panel another, smaller hole opens into a compartment separate from the rest of the enclosure; this space can be filled with sand and plugged. Bruzzese also included the same mechanical damping used in the Model 1 to prevent the Forest's mid/woofer from bottoming during extreme dynamic musical peaks.
Bruzzese further damps the entire enclosure by hand-painting its interior with a thick, multi-coat borosilicate paste. This paste is also used on the tube of the reflex port, which is made of damped acrylic and affixed with an anti-resonant glue. The borosilicate is a more lasting and stable damping material than foam, which tends to oxidize and degenerate over time, changing a cabinet's Quality Factor (Q).
Components and Crossover
The hardest part in a speaker is dividing the audio spectrum into highs and lows without losing the coherence of the music. The crossover, a quasi-second-order unit, uses air-core coils and polystyrene capacitors. All wiring is specially wound, solid-core, oxygen-free copper wire coated with silver and shielded with extruded Teflon. Most connections are mechanically crimped, not soldered—Bruzzese found that soldering "robbed" the loudspeakers of their wide soundstage. W.B.T. silver solder is used where Bruzzese found it appropriate. The twin pairs of gold-plated W.B.T. speaker-cable terminals easily accommodate the four spade lugs per speaker required for biwiring, and no grillecloth is used—Bruzzese is concerned that any air resistance could lead to mechanical compression of the midwoofer. A grillecloth is available as a modestly priced option.
Specifications
- Description: Two-way, floorstanding, reflex-loaded dynamic loudspeaker.
- Drive-units: 1" (25mm) aluminum-dome tweeter, 6.5" carbon-fiber-cone bass/mid unit with 3" voice-coil.
- Crossover frequency: 2.5Hz.
- Crossover slopes: 12dB/octave.
- Frequency response: 33Hz-20kHz, ±2dB.
- Sensitivity: 87dB/W/m (2.83V).
- Impedance: 8 ohms nominal, 6.4 ohms minimum.
- Amplifier requirements: 120W continuous, 200W peak.
- Dimensions: 36" (910mm) H by 8" (205mm) W by 10.6" (267mm) D.
- Weight: 36 lbs (16.2kg). Volume: 25 liters.
- Dimensions (w x h x d): 7.7 x 34.3 x 10.6"
- Warranty 5 years
