August 3, 2014

  • Totem Element Fire, Part 11

    During my junior year of college (1991-92), my housemate Dave knew these four girls, who lived on the 3rd and top floor of the apartment directly downhill from ours. Those four girls had this habit of lying on their porch, and sunbathing in the nude. As these were the drought years, the winter and spring quarters were full of warm, sunny days. On occasion, especially on weekends, I'd join those girls (usually 1 or 2; only rarely were all 4 out there simultaneously). One of those girls complained that, because she had to "cover up" in public, despite all the nude sunbathing on their fairly private porch [my unit was really the only one with an unobstructed view of their porch], she had tan lines.
    Tanlines
    She told me, "You [men] are lucky; you don't have tan lines." She then compared her tan lines to those on her 3 housemates.

    That's when the redhead joined the conversation, and said, "I don't have any tan lines; I just burn."
    IMG_0963
    Back then, I kept reading and re-reading the July '91 issue of Stereophile, which included the ambitious and exhausting panel review of 9 relatively affordable bookshelf speakers [plus the Snell Type K/II used as a benchmark reference]. Of these, the Epos ES11, which had a minimal crossover, scored well. In real life, when I finally got around to auditioning the ES11, it did a credible job on popular music. As has been conjectured, there could be something about the ES11's “minimalist” crossover, allowing the speaker to let go of the music. Likewise, the Totem Element Fire does not have a crossover on the Torrent woofer. The Fire does not restrain, confine, or hold back the music. Could there be a correlation between “minimalist” crossovers, and energetic sound?

    But anyway, it’s not sunburn, but do make sure you burn in the Element Fire, by subjecting it to a good dose of moderately loud popular music. It’s not the same as comparing tan lines of those 4 girls, but audiophiles want me to compare the Element Fire to other speakers.

    The most obvious comparison is with Totem’s own Ember. Here, it is no contest. As good as the Ember is, the Fire is just so effortless. There is an ease, which the Ember can’t capture. The Fire is more open and transparent, which helps it more easily mirror what you feed it. If the Ember is like donning a skimpy bikini, then the Fire is like taking off the top, allowing you to tan your back and breasts.
    IMG_0964
    Neither the Ember nor Fire do DEEP bass. For that, you’ll need Totem’s larger speakers, such as the Element Earth or Wind. The Fire’s bass is tight, accurate, and fast, so if your electronics and cables are up to snuff, you won’t have any problems with bass articulation and timing. For sunbathing purposes, that would be neither a one-piece bathing suit nor a birthday suit. As much as you guys want to be completely naked, I guess the Fire's transparent sound but with a lack of deep bass would be a topless sunbather, wearing something between a full-coverage bikini bottom and a G-string.