I saw that this thread had been revived recently and thought I might post word on how it all worked out for me. I ended up with the opportunity to buy the original Totem Model One and a pair of the Dynaudio Focus 140s at the same time and do a back-to-back home audition. My previous speakers (of ten years) had been KEF Q15s, and I was looking for something that would provide a substantial upgrade in overall sound quality while providing a lifelike midrange (the KEFs were brilliant at this for the price) and a little more low-end extension.
Prior to looking at the Totems and Dyns, I bought and briefly used a pair of Spendor S3/5s. They had the midrange in spades but not enough low-end for my 14x18 listening room; and, strangely, the highs sounded very tilted-up to my ears, possibly because of a dip they have in the upper mids. The Totems got to me first, and I was struck by three things immediately: first, the above responders were right that my C325BEE didn't have enough juice to get the low-end out of them (and I know they can go pretty convincingly low); second, the midrange was amazing and involving; third, the highs sounded over-accentuated--lip-smackings and breath jumped out of the mix, crowd noise in the background of jazz albums seemed boosted, horns had an edgier-than-real-life quality. For all this, the imaging was INCREDIBLE. They reminded me quite a bit, actually, of some Grado phones I've heard and of my old AKG K501s. I definitely think some of the edginess in the highs had to do with the limits of my amp, but measurements in Stereophile and UHF reviews show a few treble spikes, and I think that's what I was hearing. All in all, even as I found myself dazzled by their performance, I found them fatiguing. But man are they beautiful--and tiny! My wife and I both wanted to love them, but she heard the same things I did, so we set them aside and hooked the KEFs back up till the Dyns arrived.
The Dyns are beautiful speakers, too, and they're such an easy load that the C325BEE was plenty for them. My first reaction to them after having the others in the system was to notice how enormously relaxed I felt listening to them. Their frequency balance tilts toward the warm side, and I found myself able to listen enjoyably at a higher than usual volume to the same recordings that came across as brash and harsh through the Totems. They excel at dynamics, too: I dug through every Art Blakey recording I own, loving how his drum kit snaps out of the mix. And with surprising quantities and quality of bass, too. I initially compared them favorably to my Sennheiser HD600s. The one other thing that was immediately apparent (and very different than the Senns) was that the midrange didn't seem quite as lucid as through the other speakers, including the KEFs. After all the merry-go-rounding I decided to stick with them, but after about a month I found that I was listening to lots of rock but less and less jazz and classical. Putting on some of my favorite albums, I figured out why: the midrange that matters so much for acoustic instruments and voices seemed congested and thick. For rock, where the Dyns dynamics and bass made for a locked-down beat, this wasn't such a big deal, I simply didn't feel I was hearing high-fidelity reproduction--it was too obviously colored by the speaker (and I took a lot of care with placement to check out this conclusion).
To wrap up what's becoming a rather long story, I've finally wound up with something very different than what I was originally looking for, and I couldn't be happier. I decided to audition the Vandersteen 2CE Signature II at Ears Nova in Manhattan when my wife and I were in the city for vacation. Joshua Cohn there set up a listening room for us in a mock-up of our room at home, with inexpensive electronics. (We had a fantastic time with him there, and incredible service: I'd recommend Ears Nova in a heartbeat). When we sat down with our stack of CDs, that was it: it was the sound I'd been looking for. We walked out the door with the floor models at a discount (this makes the service that much more remarkable, as he hardly made a penny on them). Back home, the contrast with the Dyns was clear. Simply put, the Vandersteens do everything well with few compromises in any area--and certainly not in the midrange. They sound good with every kind of music. The two changes I've made since have been: a) to get used to two slabs of Stonehenge in my living room after all those monitors, and b) to upgrade to NAD's C372 (more power I could afford). The C325BEE was good, but just couldn't move the Vandies' low end. With the C372, the speakers have as much bass as I'd want in my room, free of any bloat, and highs more extended than with any of the other speakers I went through, but without any grain or sense of fatigue. I still had the Dyns in house once I got the new amp, and hooking them up to it I still found them lacking in the same areas but had to admit that if I primarily listened to rock, they would be a great pick.
This got a bit windy--but the hunt's been a long one. Thanks again.
Prior to looking at the Totems and Dyns, I bought and briefly used a pair of Spendor S3/5s. They had the midrange in spades but not enough low-end for my 14x18 listening room; and, strangely, the highs sounded very tilted-up to my ears, possibly because of a dip they have in the upper mids. The Totems got to me first, and I was struck by three things immediately: first, the above responders were right that my C325BEE didn't have enough juice to get the low-end out of them (and I know they can go pretty convincingly low); second, the midrange was amazing and involving; third, the highs sounded over-accentuated--lip-smackings and breath jumped out of the mix, crowd noise in the background of jazz albums seemed boosted, horns had an edgier-than-real-life quality. For all this, the imaging was INCREDIBLE. They reminded me quite a bit, actually, of some Grado phones I've heard and of my old AKG K501s. I definitely think some of the edginess in the highs had to do with the limits of my amp, but measurements in Stereophile and UHF reviews show a few treble spikes, and I think that's what I was hearing. All in all, even as I found myself dazzled by their performance, I found them fatiguing. But man are they beautiful--and tiny! My wife and I both wanted to love them, but she heard the same things I did, so we set them aside and hooked the KEFs back up till the Dyns arrived.
The Dyns are beautiful speakers, too, and they're such an easy load that the C325BEE was plenty for them. My first reaction to them after having the others in the system was to notice how enormously relaxed I felt listening to them. Their frequency balance tilts toward the warm side, and I found myself able to listen enjoyably at a higher than usual volume to the same recordings that came across as brash and harsh through the Totems. They excel at dynamics, too: I dug through every Art Blakey recording I own, loving how his drum kit snaps out of the mix. And with surprising quantities and quality of bass, too. I initially compared them favorably to my Sennheiser HD600s. The one other thing that was immediately apparent (and very different than the Senns) was that the midrange didn't seem quite as lucid as through the other speakers, including the KEFs. After all the merry-go-rounding I decided to stick with them, but after about a month I found that I was listening to lots of rock but less and less jazz and classical. Putting on some of my favorite albums, I figured out why: the midrange that matters so much for acoustic instruments and voices seemed congested and thick. For rock, where the Dyns dynamics and bass made for a locked-down beat, this wasn't such a big deal, I simply didn't feel I was hearing high-fidelity reproduction--it was too obviously colored by the speaker (and I took a lot of care with placement to check out this conclusion).
To wrap up what's becoming a rather long story, I've finally wound up with something very different than what I was originally looking for, and I couldn't be happier. I decided to audition the Vandersteen 2CE Signature II at Ears Nova in Manhattan when my wife and I were in the city for vacation. Joshua Cohn there set up a listening room for us in a mock-up of our room at home, with inexpensive electronics. (We had a fantastic time with him there, and incredible service: I'd recommend Ears Nova in a heartbeat). When we sat down with our stack of CDs, that was it: it was the sound I'd been looking for. We walked out the door with the floor models at a discount (this makes the service that much more remarkable, as he hardly made a penny on them). Back home, the contrast with the Dyns was clear. Simply put, the Vandersteens do everything well with few compromises in any area--and certainly not in the midrange. They sound good with every kind of music. The two changes I've made since have been: a) to get used to two slabs of Stonehenge in my living room after all those monitors, and b) to upgrade to NAD's C372 (more power I could afford). The C325BEE was good, but just couldn't move the Vandies' low end. With the C372, the speakers have as much bass as I'd want in my room, free of any bloat, and highs more extended than with any of the other speakers I went through, but without any grain or sense of fatigue. I still had the Dyns in house once I got the new amp, and hooking them up to it I still found them lacking in the same areas but had to admit that if I primarily listened to rock, they would be a great pick.
This got a bit windy--but the hunt's been a long one. Thanks again.
