Totem was showing their new Element Series of loudspeakers. Both the stand-mounted Fire ($6000/pair) and floorstanding Earth ($9000/pair) use Totem’s 7-inch Torrent hand-assembled driver and employ no crossover parts in the woofer section.
The speakers’ 4-coat polyester finish is exquisite, smooth and gleaming to the point of appearing wet. The cabinet itself is cleverly sloped and angled so that the speakers seem much smaller than they actually are; from the listening position, all one can see is the front baffle. This construction, Totem’s Vince Bruzzese explained, works to get rid of parasitic energy as quickly as possible. Around the rear, the speakers use WBT’s platinum connectors.
The speakers were partnered with the Rogers High Fidelity EHF-100 vacuum tube stereo integrated amplifier ($6000) and an Accuphase CD player.
The sound was fast, immediate, speedy, and quick. Moving from the smaller Fire to the larger Earth resulted in a more solid bottom end and a greater sense of ease without sacrificing any of that speedy quickness.
