July 25, 2014

  • Totem Element Fire, Part 8

    Before 1990, my family always placed speakers on the floor. In spring ’90, I bought the Paradigm 5SE “bookshelf” loudspeaker. I didn’t know much, and didn’t have any money, so I merely bought some affordable Wood Technology wooden stands.

    In the early 90s, I read about metal speaker stands, filling them with sand or lead shot, and using different stand/speaker interface materials. Hell, when Corey Greenberg reviewed the ProAc Response Two, he felt that the expensive $700 Target RS2 stands were mandatory.
    Scowling Oskie Notepad
    On the misty evening of 2/12/93, my friend ACS took the intercampus jitney from Cal (where she was student) to UC Santa Cruz (where I was staying). I met her in front of McHenry Library, where the jitney dropped passengers off. At least temporarily, that romantic walk from McHenry Library to the Crown-Merrill apartments made me stop thinking about audio. But as soon as we entered the apartment, ACS spotted my college stereo [Sony CDP-520ESII; Adcom GTP-400 and GFA-535; Pinnacle PN-5+]. She did observe that there were 3 components, but only 2 sets of the Simms Navcom Silencers. She did see that the whole system, including the speakers and TV, was placed on two 2’x2’x2’ end/lamp tables, plus a wooden board bridging those tables.
    Sign
    ACS and I got a kick out of Positive K’s “I Got A Man.” It’s a “duet” in which the female consistently turns down the male suitor. Why is "duet" in quotation marks? What we didn’t know then was that this wasn’t really a duet. There was no woman singer. You see, Positive K himself, through studio voice effects, sings the female character’s lines. Pretty cool!

    ACS then asked what could make that college stereo perform better. The first thing which came to my mind was “a dedicated audio rack.” After a pause, I then added, “And another set of Navcom pucks.” Then I thought further, pointed to the Pinnacle speakers, and said, “After the components and TV go on an audio rack, those [the Pinnacles] really need to go on metal speaker stands.”

    So in 1Q93, I ordered a Target HS20 for the Paradigm 5SE, which were still taking up residence at my parents' place in San Francisco. When the HS20 arrived, none of my funnels was small enough, to guide the sand through the holes in each pillar. Yes, ACS made sexual jokes about that.
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    In late ’93, I replaced the Paradigm 5SE with a Signet SL-280 B/U (above, shown with the Target HS20). I then bought a Sanus Systems Ultimate Foundations stand for the Signet. The UF stand was so solid and heavy, I did not feel the need to fill its columns.

    I was never fully satisfied with the ugly and underwhelming Signet SL-280 B/U. In the mid-90s, it was time to look for new speakers. ACS and I saw dealers fill Atlantis, Target, Sonus Faber, PSB, and other speaker stands with sand. Naturally, the wise-cracking ACS made a light-hearted joke about filling a penis with blood.
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    When ACS and I auditioned the Totem Model 1, it was used with a 4-post metal stand. Au naturel, this stand was already heavy. Using her middle finger's fingernail, ACS would ping the stand’s columns. Later, the dealer filled those pillars with sand. Once again, ACS took her fingernail, and pinged the stand. Versus au naturel, the stand now had a lower, duller “ping.” When music (Dream Theater’s Images And Words, if you must know) was playing, ACS grasped one of the stand’s posts, and still felt some vibrations. Yes, that did make her think about wrapping her hands around penises.

    The custom Billy Bags #1214 we use under the Totem Element Fire is welded shut. Thus, you can't experiment with materials used to fill the columns. While music is playing, hold on to one of the columns, or place your hand on the base plate. You will feel the vibrations. So here's a little trick another audiophile showed me in the late 90s, when he had the Totem Model 1 Signature. Place Totem's Beak tuning pod on the base plate of the speaker stand. Let's start smack dab in the middle. Sounds kinky, but isn't.
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    Lo and behold, the Element Fire is of such high resolution, that it does reveal what placing a Beak in the middle of the speaker stand does. The ambient cues are dried up, so it is a more direct sound. A strong contingent of audiophiles is going to like this. The focus and emphasis are on the direct sound of the instruments, sound effects, and voices. It's like slowing down a film ever so slightly, so that you can see all of the details and actions.

    ACS used to advise her friends not to use the vibrator at full blast. Turn it down to a lower setting. Or, it's like ACS saying that her favorite position is cowgirl. By being on top, she is in control. She can slow it down, and then feel every bit, every minute spot, every detail. And at the same time, she can take in the whole thing.