December 15, 2012

  • Totem Element Ember, Part 14

    People have pretty much forgotten that, 20 years ago, Beverly Hills, 90210 was one of the hottest shows.  People sometimes forget about Jamie Walters, who played Ray Pruit, the guy who pushed Donna down the stairs.  People forget that Jamie Walters was on The Heights.  People have forgotten that, Walters' theme song for The Heights, "How Do You Talk To An Angel," reached the top of the charts.

    20 years ago, when I was on winter break, I went over to Berkeley, to meet A Certain Someone (ACS).  There, we went to the Lawrence Hall of Science.  Yep, while hanging out by the fountain, listening to Walkmen, we heard "How Do You Talk To An Angel."

    Okay, okay, we also went over to dB Audio, to check out, among others, the Thiel CS1.2.  Like the East Bay hills, the CS1.2 was sloped.  At $1200, it cost the same as my Muse Model One Hundred power amp.  But I was flat-broke, and ended up not getting the CS1.2.

    Later, I would go into San Francisco, and visit Audio Excellence, then located across the street from the Transamerica Pyramid.  Audio Excellence carried both Thiel and Martin Logan.  However, they did not have the CS1.2.  They did have the Martin Logan Aerius, which was gently sloped back.  "How Do You Talk To An Angel" was a little rolled of up top, and didn't image as "pinpoint" as Thiels.  Despite the fuzzy imaging, there was a clean, see-through character to the sound, enough to remind me of going to LHS with ACS.

    20 years ago, Totem Acoustic had just one product, the Model 1.  May Audio was Totem's U.S. importer.  May Audio typically used this black-&-white ad.  Maybe that's appropriate, because Totem' Element Ember is only available in black (Dusk) or white (Ice).  I have seen various Element models in the gloss-black finish.  It is done exquisitely well.  But black is still black.  Grow a pair of ovaries, and get your Element Ember, Fire, Earth, or Metal in white.
    Despite the angles, the Totem Element Ember's front is not sloped.  While its sensitivity seems about average (for Totems), the Element Ember's clean sound makes me want to turn up the preamp's volume a notch.  For the first two months of use, the Element Ember was lacking in transparency.  It's now got enough, that it is starting to remind me of hearing "How Do You Talk To An Angel" over the ML Aerius.  Subjectively, the Element Ember seems easy to drive, he opposite of driving around in Berkeley.  As you turn the volume up and down, the music does not have a sense of strain. 

    20 years ago, despite the 4-ohm impedance, Totem's Model 1 was used with tube amps, such as those from Conrad-Johnson and Sonic Frontiers.  Later, May Audio would pair the Model 1 with the AudioPrism Debut.  The Element Ember has an 8-ohm nominal impedance.  My guess is that it will work well with a variety of tube amps.  Alas, none of my local audio buddies currently has a tube amp.  So someone else will have to evaluate tube amps on the Element Ember.

    Tube or solid state, your amp better be of high quality.  If not, the Element Ember cannot and will not rise above the mediocrity.