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Totem Forest Signature, Part 6

Posted by Luminator (A) on June 4, 2024 at 19:10:10

"It's Gary ," exclaims an audiophile, "Not Gray !"

Gary says that he used to own the regular Totem Forest, so he was curious about Totem's upgraded "Signature" version.

I can't vouch for other colleges, but when I was at UC Santa Cruz in the early-1990s, chalkboards were phased out. They were replaced with (a) screens for projectors, and (b) whiteboards which used dry-erase markers.

By the mid-1990s, whiteboards had proliferated outside of classrooms, and into residences.

At the 2003 "Stereophile" Show in San Francisco, Totem Acoustic had a room. They had a Forest, placed close to the wall behind it, and close to each other. As attendees filtered out of the Totem room, my fiancee put on Sharyn Maceren's " I Love To ." It actually had good bounce.

I told Gary, "Unless you were Totem staff, please don't say that you were there." :-)

My fiancée then put on Maceren's " Hard To Get ." She explained to the two staffers, "This is the more well-known song." After an awkward silent moment, she added, "Well, well-known if you are from the Bay, L.A., or New York."

Totem were from Montreal, but one of the guys started to bob to the music. And then, like a young woman at a dance club, he raised his arms above his head, and started to do that S-shaped body movement. As an audiophile and music lover, you thought, "Yes! Now that is what this hobby is about!"

I got married later that year. Our house was renovated in 2004. Partially because of that Totem experience at the 2003 "Stereophile" Show, my wife and I acquired a Forest in gorgeous maple. When we moved in, and hooked up the stereo, my wife insisted that the first song played was the Beach Boys' " Wouldn't It Be Nice ."

We have had many speakers (including other Totems) since then. But a part of us has always missed the compact, floorstanding Forest.

Be that as it may, now that we have a Forest Signature in-house, we set aside our previous experiences and biases about the original Forest, and bring you more information.

Whether or not Totem use whiteboards, at least as far back as 2003, they have made certain models available in white. On the Forest Signature, that is a high-gloss finish, which they call "Ice." The top panel is flat, so users might end up placing papers, eyeglasses, cups, and other objects. In a future post, we will cover the use of Totem's "Beak" tuning pod.

The Forest Signature's rear panel is actually beveled, on the top, side, and bottom edges.

Not including the Skid Plate and Claw, the Forest Signature's cabinet (i.e., not including the drivers and binding posts) measures 7.875"W x 34.25"H x 10.625"D. Photos here and on the web make the speaker appear larger than it really is.

The front vertical edges are rounded. For decades, Totem have claimed that, versus a right angle, this rounding helps with diffraction.

The standard Forest (now US$5,200) and Forest Signature (US$7,400) share the same crossover frequency (2.5 kHz), impedance (8 ohms), sensitivity (87dB), and weight (45.2 lbs.).

Gary says, "I first noticed you, oh, mid-2000s." He correctly observes, "Versus then, your product photos tend to put other objects in them."

I explained to Gary, "People on sites such as Audiogon used to copy/steal my photos. Obviously they certainly can continue to do so. However, if they take any of my modern photos, they'll have to edit out the non-product items and backgrounds. Or steal someone else's photos."

Gary shared some interesting experiences and perspectives. I think I'll incorporate some of those, in future posts.

-Lummy The Loch Monster

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