July 1, 2014

  • Totem Element Fire, Part 2

    The audiophiles are always "complaining" that I always look back. Actually, they love it, when I write about the first half of the 90s, which was when high-end audio came of age, exploded, and came within the reach of middle class consumers. Damn, that was over 20 years ago.
    Cavewoman
    For me, one of the highlights of the Spring '93 quarter was the April '93 issue of Stereophile. More specifically, within that issue, I kept reading and re-reading the review of the original Totem Model 1 minimonitor. Back then, the Model 1 was only available in black or mahogany. The mahogany finish looked like the redwood trees surrounding my apartment on the UC Santa Cruz campus.

    Speaking of looking back, I sigh at the girls who lived in a ground floor unit in a nearby building. On hot days, they'd exit via their sliding glass door, and go out onto the grassy knoll surrounding their deck. They'd remove their tops, lie on their stomachs, and tan their backs. And on weekends, when staff wasn't around, two or three of the girls would also remove their pants, and try to tan their butts. Sigh, such hotness and beauty could set the forest on fire.
    IMG_0597
    So let's take a look at the back of Totem's current most-expensive minimonitor, the Element Fire. The Fire's back panel measures 7.625" wide x 15" vertically.
    IMG_0598
    Near the top is the 2" port, which Totem have fortified with a metal (aluminum?) tube, for rigidity. Sounds kinky, but isn't.
    IMG_0599
    The Element Fire utilizes a black-anodized aluminum plate, upon which the four WBT-0730.12 platinum binding posts are mounted. As supplied by Totem, bent pieces of wire bridge the binding posts. Obviously, Totem expect you to remove (like the bikini tops of those girls sunbathing outside my college apartment) these paperclip-like wires, when you use a true bi-wire speaker cable. Or, if you use a regular, single-run of speaker cable, replace the bent wires with after-market bi-wire jumpers. At a later date, I shall go into more detail about bi-wiring the Element Fire.