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Possibly controversial: Totem arro overrated?

Alright, I may very well need to put on my flame suit here. Now let me preface by saying this: I had a pair of Totem Arros and loved them I found them to be lovely little speakers with a high WAF and lovely finishing details. What I didn't really witness however, was the unbelievable imaging that everyone talks about, the image would waver from left to right and become sort of ubiquitous when it should be dead center.

Comparatively, for instance, I've picked up a pair of Martin Logan SL3, and using the same amp and source, I'm getting a rock-solid center image and more depth and width to the soundstage. Are my ears inferior? Is it more so just a continuance of Totem Acoustic marketing when people wax lyrical about the arro's "magical" imaging capabilities? I hate to rock the boat here, but this is just something that I've been thinking about for the past few weeks and I wanted to see if others had thought the same.

David
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Showing 1 response by akg_ca

akg_ca's avatar
akg_ca
2,151 posts
 
"... that right there may be the root of your different experience.... but do have 2 other Totem speakers and enough experience with all sorts of gear to know that some combinations work better than others...."

NAILED IT!

I've had both the ARROs and FORESTs at the same time. They are fine kit, -- but arguably a tad finicky that are sensitive in that they excel with PARTICULAR hardware kit AND cables.

There area well travelled threads in AGON that Totems need a lot of grunt to perform at their max. In my experience, they only performed at their max when they were bi-amped.

Vis-a-vis cables, ARROS preferred -- (in my experience and I swapped in and out a lot of candidates)TOTEM's own TRESS, higher-end CHORD or higher-end ATLAS.(the latter was best in my kit)

Lastly, in our experiences, it is my understanding the older models wwere equipped with different speaker drivers (same ones from the company as the Dynaudios I believe ) than than the current models. IN my expereinces, there was never a less than optimal imaging sunject to the introduction of a bi-amping setup.

That you swapped in MLs with a marked improvements supports the premise that ARRO synergy with your kit appears absent and therefore ARRos are not your preferred choice.

Good luck
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