August 7, 2014

  • Totem Element Fire, Part 12

    In 1995-96, ACS and I were bowling partners. League was fun. Even more of an adventure were the out-of-town tournaments. For us young adults, the travel itself was exciting. When we arrived at the various bowling alleys, we got to see not just the alleys, but the people and the towns. As soon as we got away from the coast, it was predominantly country music on the radio.

    Most of us from Japantown Bowl were on our first jobs. Many were still in school. So the cost of bowling was a factor. But for travel league and tournaments, these were Podunk towns, without any high-priced luxury hotels. Maybe it was during March ’96, outside of Sacramento. ACS and I were lying on the hard motel bed, recapping the day, when Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” came blasting over the little clock radio. ACS had gone through dates and boyfriends like BART trains going through the Transbay tube. Just as a BART train doesn’t stay too long at a station, ACS didn’t stay too long with any of her boyfriends. That’s why, upon hearing the angry “You Oughta Know,” ACS remarked, “Wow, if I ever get to that point, stop me.”
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    ACS did talk about her long line of dates and boyfriends. Only by going through so many, did she become aware of what traits she liked, what traits she didn’t.

    Which reminds me. This particular pair of Totem Element Fire has been through several audiophiles’ hands. I don’t know the specifics, but here is what some of the former users told me.

    Of these audiophiles, the guy with Mark Levinson electronics and Tara Labs ISM cabling liked the Fire the least. He said the sound was too “austere.”

    The guy with the Meridian system [I don’t know what cables he used] said that the Fire was “glossy.”

    The guy with Bryston DAC and BAT amplification used the Fire with looms from AudioQuest, Cardas, and Kimber. He reported that the Fire was a sonic “chameleon.” Thus, we get the feeling that for the first two guys, the Fire was merely revealing the true character of the systems. The BAT guy [he also had the Joseph Audio Pulsar, but I could not elicit any information from him] then swapped in some “flea-powered tube amps,” and was taken aback at (a) how easily the Fire appeared to be driven, and (b) how “spookily real” certain instruments sounded.

    The guy with the Classe’ electronics and MIT Oracle/Magnum cabling loved the Fire. However, this guy has a larger room. He needed more deep bass than the Fire could provide. Thus, after he was done, he shipped the Fire to me. Because of what the lil' Fire showed him, he is now targeting Totem's floorstanding $8995 Element Earth.
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    In those halcyon mid-90 days, ACS did accompany me, as I auditioned loudspeakers. One of our favorites was the Totem Model 1. We had many more CDs from 1995, but these (not including greatest hits albums) are all I have left. Damn, I guess ACS took (and perhaps still has) CDs from Ace Of Bass, Chris Isaak, Elton John, Garbage, La Bouche, Montell Jordan, Real McCoy, and Selena. Yep, so ACS and I used Dream Theater's A Change Of Seasons, Erasure's eponymous album, Savatage's Ghost In The Ruins, and Tears For Fears' "God's Mistake" at San Francisco's Ultimate Sound, as we auditioned that Totem Model 1. And now, I'm using these exact same CDs to review the Element Fire.
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    And that brings me to my current "review system." Sources include AT&T U-Verse; Nintendo Wii U; Oppo BDP-83; Rotel RCC-1055; Mark Levinson No. 37; NuForce DAC-9 192k. Integrated amp is the self-effacingly neutral Simaudio 600i. Signal cables are the even-handed XLO Signature 3. Powercords include Pranawire's Satori, Maha Samadhi, and Vajra. The Simaudio 600i and XLO S3 have very little of their own sound. Thus, they, without bias, let us hear what's going on. Well, we can add the Totem Element Fire to that list. Other than the deep bass, the Fire is perhaps even more neutral, transparent, and accurate than the 600i and S3.