January 21, 2013

  • Totem Element Ember, Part 17

    In late September '89, I entered UCSC.  I was just getting started, when the Loma Prieta quake struck.  It devastated the area.  Since I never had the chance to explore pre-quake Santa Cruz, my image is of the ruined Santa Cruz.  With the town in ruins, downtown was a "tent city."  It would be three years, before larger businesses moved in. 

    A major turning point was the opening of the Santa Cruz Costco.  By then, I was living with housemates in apartments.  For us, it made sense to pool our resources, and share things from Costco.

    20 years ago, people were snapping up CDs.  And if you alphabetized your CDs by artist, who usually came first?  Sweden's ABBA.  If you didn't get ABBA's Gold for Christmas '92, you could snatch it up cheaply at Costco.  Thus, in the first half of '93, Gold continued to be a top-seller.

    I don't know where my housemate bought ABBA's Gold, but we played it on my Sony CDP-520ESII -> Adcom GTP-400 -> Adcom GFA-535 -> Pinnacle PN-5+ system.  Okay, I was a hardcore hi-fi nut.  But when you listen to ABBA, you're not supposed to sit stiffly in the "sweet spot."  You're supposed to get up, and unleash your inner Dancing Queen.

    As speakers went, the Pinnacle PN-5+ was tiny.  Despite a tipped-up tonal balance, it did not sound lightweight, thin, or anemic.  And this was in a living room with open space and high ceiling.  As I read stereo magazines, I wondered how similarly sized, but higher end minimonitors would sound.  Totem's original Model 1 was the minimonitor which piqued my interest the most.  Back then, it was only available in black ash and mahogany.  Who would have known that, 20 years later, Totem would channel Sweden's Ikea, and make the Element series in black and white gloss finishes?

    Anyway, while my housemates and I were grooving to ABBA, one of them held the jewel case, and remarked, "These guys are ugly.  I thought they were better-looking."

    Okay, Totem' Element Ember doesn't necessarily have a small and restrictive "sweet spot."  As long as you're somewhere in the middle of the room, you'll be rewarded with clean, quick, true-to-the-source sound.  But if you sit on the floor, the treble will be rolled off.  If you stand up, you may experience that upper midrange suckout, making ABBA's female vocalists sound like they've got a cold.

    If you get up, and dance in the extreme edges of the room, the Ember's soundstage will skew.  The images will seem like you've held up a funhouse mirror.  If you are a stereotypical audiophile who plants his ass in the sweet spot, all of this will be a moot point.  But if you listen with others, and are prone to throwing parties, perhaps the Ember (because of the way the soundstaging changes, as you move about the room) isn't the best choice.  In this size, Totem's The One might be the better party speaker.  Or, if you go up in price and size, check out the Mani-2 Signature and Element Fire.