Totem Sky, Part 10

Posted by Luminator (A) on March 22, 2021 at 18:45:19

An audiophile now in Alaska emailed, "I can't thank you enough. I love love love your deep deep deep, highly informative reviews. You're such a good writer, making it feel as though we're right there with you. It's always interesting, fun, and HUMAN. Then you cover details that NO ONE, certainly not magazines, even mentions. You top it off with photos no one else bothers to take. I wanted to let you know that, because of the information provided in your charming Totem Sky review, I will NOT be getting it."

He wrote, "That's a juicy bit, on amplification. Let's move up the chain, and talk about phonostages."

Because the Totem Sky projects the music into the room, loses mass, waits like an eager puppy, and in general does not mask or hide vinyl's flaws, here is where we have to be careful.

He then pivoted, "She should have been an audiophile!" He was referring to, in a different product review, my college neighbor, who was normally a care-free wannabe hippie. But she had this one peculiar OCD pet peeve. She would turn cereal boxes, so that their label side was hidden from view. Did she do that to/with any other items in the kitchen? Nope. Did she turn bathroom toiletries like that? Nope. Did she care that your Stereophile and TAS magazines were not in chronological order? Nope. Did she care that her small stack of vinyl records was not sorted by artist? Nope.

Unlike us audiophiles, her record collection consisted not of LPs, but of 12" singles. During our senior year (1992-93), I had the Adcom GTP-400 tuner/preamp, which did have a built-in MM phonostage. She had a slender, plasticky mass market (Hitachi? Sanyo?) record player. She would bring it up to my apartment. You never forget that she had the 12" single of Depeche Mode's "Stripped." But it had an excellent mix of "But Not Tonight," a song which we loved, and should have been a huge hit. The Adcom's phonostage was... okay , not the most resolving, but less grainy than her receiver. Still, as a music lover or audiophile, you never forget these moments.

Do you normally leave your budget turntable stashed away, but occasionally like to bring it out? Then if you have the already small Totem Sky, it makes sense (assuming your preamp does not have a phonostage) to have a small outboard unit. We like Simaudio's 110LP and Creek's little OBH-8, 9, or 15. The Sky is okay, with these physically small and space-saving units, whose sound quality (a) is better than that of the Adcom GTP-400, and (b) won't throw things out of whack.

While I had that Adcom GTP-400 at my college apartment, at home was the B&K Pro10MC, whose built-in phonostage was excellent. The latter was focused, detailed, upbeat, and just plain good. The Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" was never more funky and fun. So if you have an entry-level turntable from the likes of Clearaudio, Rega, SOTA, Thorens, and VPI, the Totem Sky is so good, it will demand a phonostage, minimally equivalent as the one found in the B&K Pro10MC.

I used to have the vacuum-tubed Conrad-Johnson EV-1. It now resides with an audio friend in Maryland. When you ask him, you can tell by his nervous apprehension, that the EV-1 is not the best match for the Totem Sky. He says, "You're going to want to use cables and tubes [such as the Sylvania Gold Brand 5751], which make it (the EV-1) less bulbous and shaded." He adds, "You're gonna want the (Conrad-Johnson's solid state) EF-1 instead. Killer, especially with Totems."

The EAR 324 just quietly sits there, and does its job. Most of my audiophile friends detest this. They find it bland, boring, and uninspiring. For this kind of money, they expect something more bold, colorful, exciting, organic, splashy, uplifting, etc. And that's perfectly their right. But in the real world, if you have the typically bad popular music pressings, you might like the EAR 324. It will not add any insult to injury.

Yet, as we throw turntables, arms, cartridges, cables (untreated and Cooked) at the EAR 324, you pick up on all the sonic differences. When you switch cartridges, and have to adjust gain and loading, you hear the differences. Assuming you have high-quality vinyl gear, when you adjust anti-skating, azimuth, stylus pressure, VTA, and others, the EAR 324 often lets you hear what's going on.

Yeah, yeah, the EAR 324 costs three times that of the Totem Sky. The point is, choose the phonostage carefully and wisely. You can avoid pitfalls, and then let the Sky, on real-world analog setups, sing. If you are so inclined, the Sky is worthy of gear costing multiple times its price.

The audiophile from Alaska wrote, "From your most excellent detailing of the Sky, I skipped it. I was then confident, that it'd be worth the extra bucks, to get the (more expensive and slightly larger) Signature One."

-Lummy The Loch Monster

But Not Tonight (Open in New Window)

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Topic - Totem Sky, Part 10 - Luminator 18:45:19 03/22/21 (3)

RE: Totem Sky, Part 10 - fantja 00:03:18 03/30/21 (2)

Kids got older - Luminator 00:55:12 03/30/21 (1)

RE: Kids got older - fantja 02:54:36 03/30/21 (0)

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