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Rega/Totem combo wow!

Was out of town for work last week and managed to stop into a hifi shop downtown after work one evening.  I forget the name of the place but it was right in Cincinnati (audible elegance i believe).  I had always wanted to hear a rega/naim amplifier.  Long story short, they had a rega brio and elex r hooked up to a pair of Totem Rainmakers (which is a nice compact speaker for my space) and I have to say that I was really impressed by the speakers even through the lower powered brio.  The gentleman switched from the Brio to the Elex to hear the difference.  And yes, there was a difference. The Elex provided more bass and a little smoother sound to my ears but both amps sounded superb and although the Totems are 4ohms, I was more impressed with the little Brio handling them quite well.  I haven't really heard many people talk about totem speakers on too many threads but like I said, there seemed to be a really good match there between the regas and the totems.  Has anyone else had a similar experience with these two brands playing together and if so what were your thoughts?
mgrec42
therobert
51 posts
 
I have a Rega Elex-R, and I tried the Rainmakers with it (a demo form my local shop), and I found the combo way too bright. I went with Dynaudio Excite X-12's at the time, and that combo sounded much better to my ears. I now have Ascend Acoustics Sierra 2's, and I am set, as I think they sound fantastic - they don't image quite as well as the X-12's, but they are a bit fuller sounding, and the highs from the ribbon tweeter are extremely detailed and sweet, without being too bright, or fatiguing.
jag's avatar
jag
98 posts
 
i have the new Rega Brio and bought the Rega RS1's at the same time. heard this set up at a show with Rega cables and was sold. 
the RS1's are very compact and are on my desk, but sound very big.
vijitc's avatar
vijitc
1 posts
 
I just brought the Rega Brio (@ Bay Bloor Radio in Toronto), paired with the Totem Sky Tower. Tried several parings including the Naim Unity Atom, the  Rega Elex-R and others. But amazingly the Rega Brio stood up beautifully with the Totem Sky. What a speaker. Just blew away all the other brands we looked at. I am only using it with streaming services via the Sonos Port DAC.
yeti42's avatar
yeti42
287 posts
 
For a second system I had Totem Dreamcatchers on demo with my existing Rega Cursa/Maia combo which had been displaced from my main system by a Naim 282/250 and if I didn’t listen to a lot of solo piano music I’d have bought them. I was happy with what they did with Tool and they warmed up Wishbone Ash nicely, a lot of systems make them rather tedious, but a bit of Scriabin was too much for them, they made a Steinway concert grand sound like an upright. My budget was around £700 including stands so I didn’t try higher up the range. I bought a pair of lightly used Naim allaes from a dealer in Salisbury in the end.
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