July 6, 2014

  • Totem Element Fire, Part 3

    I met ACS in December 1987. Supposedly, this was when Vince Bruzzese formed Totem Acoustic. No, I wasn't in the market for speakers. I didn't know much about speakers, but I did have an affinity for the Advent Baby, DCM Timeframes, and Infinity Kappas.

    On Valentine's Day 1992, ACS came down from Cal to visit me at UCSC. She remarked, "Where is everyone? Where'd everyone go?"
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    I had to inform her that, unlike Cal, UCSC was sparsely populated. I had plenty of space and time to read my audio magazines. Via May Audio's crude black & white ads, I was aware of Totem's Model 1 (apparently, that was the only product they initially made). But I wasn't in the market for speakers, certainly not some dinky minimonitors which cost $1595 a pair. At the time, my favorite speakers were the Epos ES11, NHT 1.3, and Thiel CS1.2.

    As many of my readers know, as ACS and I were walking toward my apartment, two coeds passed by, and flashed us. When ACS and I were sitting at the kitchen table, she initially removed her bra, by threading it through her shirt sleeves. A short time later, she took off her t-shirt. My housemate Dave, who had gotten out of the shower and had a towel wrapped around his waist, spotted the topless ACS at the kitchen table, and let out a hearty laugh. After dinner, ACS went to my room, stepped out of her jeans and slipped off her panties. Well, that was the first time I saw her not just topless, but completely nude.
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    In its slick finish, the Totem Element Fire looks terrific nude. This photo doesn't show it, but the Fire's front panel (which measures 9"W x 17"H) is perfectly vertical, not slanted. Like a pitched roof, the Fire's top panel is sloped. If you try to use Totem's Beak, it'll slide down and off the Fire's top panel.

    Yeah, it was kind of cool, how ACS reached into her t-shirt sleeve, and, like a slick magician, pulled out her bra. The Fire does come with a magnetically-attached grille. My Fire comes in the "Ice" white finish, and the grille has a white fabric. The "Dusk" black Fire comes with a grille in black fabric. Despite being of matching color, this grille doesn't flatter the speaker, and muffles the sound. So I didn't even bother to take a picture of these grilles. Like ACS' bra, the Fire's grille is best left off.
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    So without the bra grille blocking the way, let's look at the nipple tweeter. With a plastic disc up against the metal protective cage, the Fire's tweeter looks exactly the same as the Hawk's.

    Attending UCSC, I saw a fair number of topless girls in the dorms and around campus. So when flat-chested ACS went topless in my college apartment, it was a somewhat mundane experience, not unprecedented. My housemate Todd's laidback, hippie-ish girlfriend occasionally went around topless, and on weekend mornings would get up, go to the kitchen, cook breakfast while wearing just a skirt; Dave's female friends from the neighboring building played that prank by showing up topless at our front door; Dave's topless sexual partners did pop out of his room to go to the bathroom; and earlier in the school year, KJ had been in that same apartment not just topless, but completely naked. Still, when ACS took off her jeans and panties, went cuntmando, and revealed her big butt and matted pubic hair, that went beyond the ordinary, beyond just being topless. While there was a fair number of breasts and even butts (from sunbathers lying on stomachs) on campus, it wasn't everyday, that you got to see coochie*. I certainly paid attention!
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    As any audiophile knows, most of the attention has been paid to the Element Series' 7" Torrent woofer, which is used on the Fire. The rubber woofer doesn't appear out of the ordinary, but the stamped metal frame does. While music is playing, if you put your hand or finger on the metal frame, it (the metal frame) is relatively inert, free of vibration. In sex talk, that doesn't seem exciting. But for audio purposes, maybe that's a good thing. For video purposes, you should know that the Element Fire is not magnetically shielded. So if you are still using a CRT television/monitor, keep the Fire at least a foot away.

    * OTOH, plenty of guys walked around commando, so male genitalia were a fairly common campus sighting.