Salk Sound Encore 3 or Totem Wind


How do they compare? I am buying either a used set of Salk Encore 3 speakers or Totem Winds. I cannot make up my mind. I will not be able to audition either speaker. They are both about the same money used. Can anybody help me make a decision? I have BAT equipment and my room is 13 x 16. I am currently using Vonschweikert VR4-jr and they are very nice sounding.

dpm2340

@dpm2340 in this case with your amp,  if you must pick between the two you mentioned, probably the Salk then. Keep in mind your current speaker will sound different from the Salk and its likely Be tweeter. A friend with similar power range tube amps worked for a year to tame that tweeter in his Salks and Jim sent him a resistor to tame it. He ended up selling the speakers for a speaker with higher nominal impedance and a more tamed ribbon tweeter instead, fwiw. You could call and  talk with Jim and ask if he's still working on designing a more sensitive 8ohm speaker. As I recall, he was (sort of) partnering a bit with a gentlemen on pairing up some tube amps last year - he was trying with his speakers. As for the Totems, I'd want more power to drive them if you felt compelled to buy those instead. Cool amp there you have.. If I had to recommend something, I'd also be looking at other 8ohm slightly higher sensitivity speakers for your amp. Def talk to Jim about some of his more recent explorations with other tube friendly speakers and see if he shares any updates with you.  Not sure if he ever developed anything more there or not.  A friend talked with him a lot about this over a year ago.  Best of Luck. 

I have Totem Metal V2’s and drive them with a Jeff Rowland Continuum S2. As I did some research on Totem in general  it seems that they need power. I have Emotive Audio Vita  6550 monoblocks as well but they aren’t the best match for the Metals. For those amps I have Bache Audio Tribeca’s. They are absolutely musical speakers and work well with tubes. 

No way would I change from what you own and enjoy. I have always liked VonS.

If you'd have offered up the VR4s with the two you're thinking of I'd have picked them anyway over the others. Totems always seemed too punchy. I've heard nice Salk speakers but I'd not guess them better. I'd keep and enjoy what you have.

The grass may seem greener...  Buying a non-auditioned speaker is highly risky.

Thanks, I know we are always looking for something to make our systems sound better. Every speaker I've owned has been a guess. I am just too far away from a dealer.