sold in store, please call us (604) 618-7268 to order - limited stock may be available
Totem Forest Signature
"Canadian designer Vince Bruzzese has been marketing his small, two-way loudspeakers under the Totem Acoustic brand name. Every review of one of these designs has raved about their strong bass response and three-dimensional imaging" Stereophile
The Forest
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—mounted in a narrow, 3'-tall cabinet 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.
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 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).
The crossover, a quasi-second-order unit, uses quality parts such as Clarity MR non-resonant capacitors, ESA and Super Audio variants, as well as Orange Drop bypasses, oxide/metal foil resistors, and massive air-core inductors. 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.
Reviews
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Specifications
- Frequency Response: 28 Hz – 22 kHz ± 2 dB (in-room)
- Recommended Power: 50 – 225 W
- Woofer: 6.5″ / 16.51 cm, 3″ / 7.62 cm voice coil
- Tweeter: 1″ / 2.54 cm aluminum/titanium dome
- Impedance: 8 ohms (6.4 minimum)
- Sensitivity: 87 dB
- Dimensions (w x h x d): 7.8″ x 36″ x 11.5″ / 19.812 x 91.44 x 29.21 cm
- Placement from rear wall: 1′ – 6′ / 30.48 – 182.88 cm
- Placement distance apart: 4′ – 12′ / 121.92 – 365.76 cm
- Break-in Time: 100 – 150 hours
- Crossover Frequency: 2.5 kHz compensated, 2nd order
- Speaker Terminals: Bi-wire able, Gold WBT connectors
- Weight 45.2lb / 20.53kg
- Warranty 5 years
