Totem Owners....

Guys,
A closer look on the Model-1 and Mani-2 I realized that their mid-bass drivers look identical to ones from Dynaudio Contour and Confidence. Am I correct? if so, I'm curious how do they sound compare with the Totem? I have not ever heard any of Dynaudio so lots of infos and deatails would be greatful. Thanks

Csmgolf, Fail did the very same thing to me. Trying to sell me stuff, and wanting to be 'friends'. When I told him I was in the biz, no more private mail from Fail.

Nasaman,

All of Totem's columns are mass-loadable (arro, sttaf, hawk, forest, - and I believe the Wind's are as well). The benefit of mass loading, in this case, has more to do with stability (to help prevent them from tumbling over) than gains in sound quality. It's worthy to note that some owners report positive gains in the bass region after mass loading their Totems. This of course, is when first hand experience is the greatest teacher.

To my knowledge, none of Totem's monitors are mass loadable.

Next.. the drivers

Totem uses bonafide Dynaudio drivers in the: Model 1 (The One, Model 1 Twin), the Mani-2, and the Wind's. Totem uses a HiVi driver (developed by Totem) in the Forest.

As for the sound; I found Dynaudio to have a completely different sound from Totem. Like anything else in the hobby, some will dig it - and some won't.

the winds do not use dynaudio drivers. they use hivi and seas. I own a pair, and totem told me this, along with how long it takes one person to make a pair by hand, and that they dont really want them reviewed because they only make 30 pairs a year, that sell out early. It takes 42hrs to make the cabs of the winds by hand. this is done by one person his name is chris.

What model to buy? You've got to listen to them. There isn't a bad choice in the bunch, but one will speak to you more than the others. Power wise I'd say you're o.k. with any of the two way towers and all the monitors except the Mani-2's for optimum sound. The Hawks spoke to me, and I've got 400 watt monoblocks on them. It really doesn't get any better for me.