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Totem Sttaf

I'm currently auditioning a pair of Totem Sttaf speakers. I've read so many good things about them, but I'm not particularly impressed. Their voicing, to my ears, seems to employ certain tricks to enhance the sense of imaging. The bass, while many say is strong for the speaker's size, sounds loose and undefined. The soundstage stays strictly between the speakers; I hardly ever hear it extend beyond. Depth is also not that great. Overall, they seem to lack the same natural sound that my LSA1 monitors put forth. It might be a bit unfair to compare imaging of a floor stander versus a monitor, but even for a floor stander, I'm not that impressed with the Sttaf's imaging. The sense of imaging all seems to come from a slightly enhanced treble; imaging in the midrange seems not quite as clear.

Maybe my ears are pushing my tastes beyond my wallet. But I think I can do better for the money, considering the Sttaf's $1800 retail price. I should also note that I have a small 11x11 listening room, so finding speakers that work is a challenge too. That's why I considered the Totems.
jwglista
jwglista OP
206 posts
 
Ghosthouse: Totem recommends 60-80 hours for the Sttaf. I can hear the bass, but it sounds more like undefined rumble most of the time.

There's also a certain quality to the treble that I don't like. Things can sound a bit sibilant at times. They don't quite cause listening fatigue, but it doesn't sound "natural" to my ears.
bdgregory
1,714 posts
 
break in may be an issue in this case with <100 hours on them, although Totem says 60-80 hours is the normal break in time. I recall the dealer telling me 100-200 hours. I would pull them further out into the room if you can. Also, try different positioning to each other. In one room I had mine set up only about 5 ft apart. It's totally counter intuitive, but with that arrangement the image was huge.
ghosthouse's avatar
ghosthouse
4,312 posts
 
Jw & Bd - yup...break in time from the Totem site is less for the Sttafs than what they recommend for the Forests. Still, for me, the Forests seemed to take much longer than the listed hours to come into their own. Maybe that will be true for the Sttafs too. I have owned the Forests for almost 7 years now and still experiment from time to time with placement in my smallish listening alcove. I came across a photo of Vince B's. set up for Forest Signatures at a recent show. From the photo it was evident he had them pretty close together (<6 ft?). Another thing that helped me was to put them on 2" maple plinths from Timber Nation. These in turn are on heavy 18x18" Travertine tiles. Stabilized the speakers very well given the Berber carpet with padding that's on the floor.
stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,404 posts
 
The speakers may or may not need more breaking in, but I have found that if I don't like the sound of new speakers with only a few hours on them, I will never fully like them. I have heard that totems tend to be rather bright and for that reason, I never auditioned them.

Don't waste more money changing amplification and cables like I did as you are just throwing good money after bad. I would push the dealer to let you try the Golden Ear speakers and do a comparison between them and the Totem Staffs.
jwglista OP
206 posts
 
Bdgregory: I believe they are currently 5 feet apart. I will try bringing them in even closer.

Ghosthouse: Since I only have these on demo, I won't be able to experiment with plinths for the speakers. But that is a good idea.

Stereo5: I really agree with you on this. I made the same mistake once before, and I should see the writing on the wall here. I'm pushing the dealer to let me try to the Triton 3's in my house. If he says no, I either have the option to take a leap of faith and just buy them (which I probably won't do), or start looking for something used on A-gon.
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