I am a 47 year old professional guitarist and audiophile. I live and breathe music coming from a musical family background. Over the years, I have made many changes to my main system. I always seem not to be completely satisfied with my speaker selection.

I thought I came close when I purchased the Dynaudio Confidence C2 tower speakers. These are the second pair of Dynaudio speakers for me. I had once owned the Contour 1.3’s. My main concern about both of these speakers is they lack some soulful music making that becomes apparent when I play my favourite cds. This seems to distract me from truly enjoying my music. To my mind, a speaker keeping the virtues of the Dynaudio C2’s but adding some passion would be an ideal speaker for me. I believe I have found this in the Totem Element Earth.

I feel I have acquired a new lease on audio with the Totem speakers. I have rediscovered my treasured cds and got into types of music and musical performances that didn’t attract me in the past. I could use the Van Halen cds from the David Lee Roth years as an example to illustrate this. As a young amateur guitarist attending music lessons and listening to Rock music, Van Halen was very important to me as with other youths of that time. Apart from Eddie Van Halen’s mastery on the guitar, Van Halen was more or less to me a fun LA band. I never gave David Lee Roth’s vocals or Michael Anthony’s bass playing much notice. This has now changed with the Totem Earth speakers, even after listening to Van Halen since 1978. I can know hear and distinguish what David Lee Roth and Michael Anthony were trying to convey in their performances. The Earth speakers let me hear Roth’s signature howls and tone of voice like never before. It’s his attitude that comes through these speakers and blends with the rest of the music. The Earth speakers have made me believe that Roth was a serious vocalist when these classic albums were recorded and not the cocky Rock star I envisioned. The same can be said about Michael Anthony’s bass guitar. I always thought he was a so-so bassist in a great band. Now I can hear his innovative approach to bass playing on the Van Halen II cd. It is full of unique sounds and rhythms that blend with the rest of the band.

The same goes for other types of music. I love classical but don’t really care for Vivaldi too much, thinking that he reinvented the same mini concerto 200 times. The 4 seasons have never struck a cord with me on any system I have owned or with any pair of speakers. The Earth speakers have prompted me to buy 3 more Vivaldi interpretations.

As a happy owner of the Totem Earth speakers, I think they are unique on how they are seamless, well integrated and balanced. They are big on texture and depth but don’t over do it so that other qualities like imaging and realism are over looked. It’s amazing because to me they are many different speakers in one package. They have the bass of Dynaudio. The mids of Sonus Faber. The imaging of Hales. The warmth of Dunlavy and the highs of Swan.

If I am to be critical of the Totem Earth speakers, I would say that they need to be used with top notch kit and cables. I use them with Pass Labs INT 150 integrated amp, Copland CDA 825 cd player and Transparent Super cables.