Price Paid:  $2500.00 from galen carol

Summary:
The Toem forest's are a great little floorstander whose size belies their music presentation. There are a few things that must be done in order to acheive the greatness that these speakers are capable of.
1. Biwire- most speakers can be wired as an afterthought, the notion of "well everyone else is doing it we might as well to"(sic. manufacturer) The forest are designed to be biwired from the beginning! DO IT!
2. They must be mass loaded- The low mids and bass can be sloppy if loading is not acheived. You are filling a cavity otherwise occupied by air that shouldn't be occupied by air! Completely filling can have the effect of decreased presentation of soundfield and imaging.
3. Breakin is at least 200 hrs. period.
4. Use good equiptment. The forests really portray the signal fed to them.....crap in-crap out, so to speak.
Ok, an excellent loudspeaker that might just end your searching! Designed to play music that is presented as articulate, detailed, and complicated......which means hard rock metal should go to something like a cerwin-vega.

Strengths:
Depth of field, imaging, detailed and precise.

Weaknesses:
Won't perform the last octave of bass......but weren't designed to.

Similar Products Used:
zu druid
soliloquy 5.3i
totem hawk
legacy audio focus 20/20

Price Paid:  $4000.00 from Canadian Totem deale

Summary:
OK, never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would spend this much on a pair a speakers. I had heard the Forests at the dealer about 6 months earlier and the sound never left my head, so warm and pure. I recently bought a new amp (Redgum RG120iENR) a big upgrade over the reciever I was using for 2 channel music but it really brought out the limitations from my HT speakers. Listening to music through my HT speakers (Def Tech BP10)the bass was lacking and the highs were overwhelming. Enter the Totem Forest. I bought the speakers from a local dealer with a 30 day return policy. What did I have to loose? I was told they need a long break in period, but from the first listen I was hooked. I knew they were not going back. My wife thought I was crazy at first but after listening to them for a couple of weeks she would'nt part with them either. We are not audiophiles but we do expect excellent sound when we sit and listen to music. We listen mostly to Jazz with female vocals (Diana Krall, Norah Jones) as well as clasic rock and some clasical. The Totem Forests are engaging, you feel wrapped up in the music, totally engulfed. The sound stage is massive with detail never heard before. I experimented with speaker position for about a week and found they wanted to be closer to the back wall than most calculations would have them. I was also a little concerned with bass response given the specs. My concern was not nessesary, bass is deep and extended, sometimes you would swear there is a sub in the system. The Bass drum from China Grove hits you right in the chest. The highs are clean and clear, never biting at your ears. The sweetest part though is the midrange, makes you feel part of the music, its an experience you dont want to stop. I might have stumbled upon the ultimate system for under 10K.

My system consists of:

Totem Forest (with beaks)
Redgum RG120iENR integrated amp
Ah! Njoe Tjoeb 4000 cd player
Transparent Music plus interconnects and speaker cables.

Strengths:
Fully engaging, makes you stop analysing your system and you just listen.

Deep extended bass for a small speaker

clean clear highs, beautiful midrange

Weaknesses:
A little expensive.

Similar Products Used:
Def Tech BP10, Def Tech BP6, Pro Linear, Cerwin Vega.

Price Paid:  $2600.00 from Audiogon

Summary:
Just to give you a benchmark, my previous speakers were Dynaudio Contour 1.3 mkIIs (which I liked a lot). Both speakers are very balanced, with solid bass response and a smooth top end, but the Forest's are much more involving. They image very well, present lots of detail, and have a suprisingly full bottom end (after break in). It's true they don't produce the very lowest octaves, but I'm a bass freak, and I don't miss anything. To my ears, the Forest's have a sweet top end that's never harsh or etched. These speakers made me love my stereo again, and have prompted some additional upgrades (it's like crack!). Highly recommended, to say the least...

Strengths:
Imaging, sweet top end, very musical

Weaknesses:
Can play loud enough to please me, but if you want to blow your neigbors away, they're probably not for you.

Similar Products Used:
Dynaudio Contour 1.3 mkII, PSB Stratus Gold

Price Paid:  $2450.00

Summary:
After auditioning a number of speakers over several months, I chose the Forests. Several factors led to this choice. Most importantly, I enjoyed the Forests more than the other speakers. I can listen to the Forests at loud volume all afternoon without any fatigue. The range seemed very good, however, when I brought them home to my very bright and large room (over 5000 cubic feet with lots of large windows and hard wood floors), the bass was somewhat reticent (not surprisingly considering the room), but is always very musical. A sub-woofer quickly fixed that problem. The midrange of the Forests is excellent, and I find the highs to be very pleasing, clear and not too bright. Female vocalists (e.g., Diana Krall, Margo Timmins, Sarah McLachlan, or Patti Smith) are presented in an exceptionally pleasing way. The Trinity Session of the Cowboy Junkies sounds outstanding, and you can clearly perceive that the recording was made in a church. Male vocalists, such as Dave Mathews' range in Some Devil, seems to me to be exquisitely clear and leads to goosebumps. Tom Waits voice is lifelike, rich and dark in Mule Variations, as I imagine it to be. These speakers excel at Jazz (e.g., Chick Chorea or Pat Methany) at either soft or loud volume. I found them to be particularly strong with solo instruments, and ensembles, groups, and orchestras are also full of life. I was a little disappointed, at first, with rock, but once I added a sub (the Totem Thunder), the Forests performance was very good. The speakers seem to disappear when listening - my nine-year-old daughter commented that it seems that the music isn't coming out of the speakers. I like the sound-staging, which is layered for well recorded music. Finally, I think the quality of construction of the Forests is excellent. They are beautifully finished and add a nice addition to my furniture. (I have the mahogany finish.)

A couple of things helped the performance of the Forests. Having sand in the bottom of the speakers improved (tightened) the bass response. I only use the front foot riser (a large ball bearing) and leave out the back foot risers. This tilts the speaker by a couple of degrees, and this greatly improved the size and quality of the soundstage, and raised the "sweet spot" somewhat.

Overall, I'm very happy with the Forests.

Strengths:
Build and looks
Sound

Weaknesses:
small concern is bass

Similar Products Used:
Infinity, B&W 703, Paradigm Studio 40, 60 and 100, Proac R15,

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I'm still pretty new in the audiophile realm as my associated equipment reveals, so the "grain of salt" practice may require observing, especially for you more seasoned audiophiles. Alrighty then...

My two year quest for the "perfect" speaker ended recently. I am an obsessive researcher and bargin hunter and have spent the past 2 years on this web sight and others as well as inside numerous audio stores listening and head-scratching. After reading the reviews about the paradigm reference line and listening, I decided I liked them very much. The V.3 60 and 100's were both to my liking. My room size had me leaning toward the 100's. The v3's bass in particular impressed my even more than the v2's already had. THe 100's have a sweet pleasant midrange and clear, open, not overly bright top end. These speakers hold their composure at loud volumes and capable of powerful, dynamic reproduction. Imaging and sound stage were also failry good. I was nearly ready to make a purchase based on many listening sessions and what I had read in reviews on this sight, but yet I hesitated, not fully convinced.

One day I listened to a small 2 way pair of speakers by Totem Acoustic: The Forest.

At this point I must say, "WOW!" The pair was a Demo set for $2,700, a bit more than I wanted to pay and a bit more than the 100 V3's were going to cost, but for me the sound difference would have been worth it. The soundstage alone was worth the extra hundreds they would have cost me. A relativly small two-way floorstander, the Totem Forest gave me what I think of as my first taste of true high-end sound. They are wonderful. Bass is surprisingly deep and dynamic for such a small cabinet, and quick quick quick. Clear, beautiful, open, revealing, with an overall stunningly alive vibrant sound. To date, I have never heard piano reproduced so realistically. It's actually startling. But... I didn't buy these either.

I was days away from taking them home when, in a final effort to better the Forests with something at or near their price, I stumbled into Deets' Sound Room in Sacramento (wonderful shop, by the way). Deets, the owner, showed me a few things he had, but after a few minutes of listening he saw I wasn't experiencing the magic I sought, he sat me down in another part of the showroom and popped one of my audition CD's (Diana Krall, I think?) into another system featuring two large floorstanding speakers: The Zingali Overture 4B's. My search ended then and there. I took them home that night at $2,800 out the door. They list at around $4,000, but these were taken as a trade in for a customer who upgraded to the Zingali Overture 4S's. At this point I must interject a Double WOW!! Speakers presentation was very different from that of the Totems, but very very wonderful. While the Totems were biased toward the bright side (sometimes painfully so, with poorly recorded rock), the Zingali's were just right, not laid back but more natural and non-fatiguing for all types of music. The imaging is great, soundstage too was very nice, although not quite as impressive in this department as the Forest's. The Zingali's bass is just wat I wanted; deep (down to 32hz), tuneful and dynamic, although a bit slow compared to the Forest. The midrange and top end on the other hand... well, let's just say it was one of those "Oh, my God!" situations. My eyebrows went up in surprise and my jaw went down in disbelief and amazement. My wife, who I dragged along for most of my demo listening and who two years ago couldn't hear or care less about the diffenences in the speakers we auditioned, looked at me with a new look. This was not the look of "yeah, these sound pretty good" or "these hurt my ears". This look, a triumphant moment for me (finally understanding--she gets the reason for the quest), was the look of disbelief and amazement. "Wow," she said. "These sound way better than any of the other ones we've heard, I think."

I put in a rock CD (Evenescence) and the first thunderous drum impact at the beginning of "haunted" was, well...thunderous. The testicles were there, the imaging (particularly front to back) was believably wonderful with a very decent soundstage. The midrange and top end were to die for. Zingali speakers use a new patented circular horn-loaded driver for the mid and upper freqs named Omniray (don't even think Klipsch when I mention horns, this horn is something special all the bennifits, none of the drawbacks). All Zingali horns are lathed out of Poplar wood by a million dollar, computerized machine. I really didn't want anything with a horn considering I've been listening to a small pair of Klipsch's for quite some time. But THIS horn is not what I expected. If you have the means, I urge anyone serious about music to audition Totem acoutic speakers and of couse the Zingali lines. A bit more money, but you Will hear the difference, and to me was totally worth it. I Love my Zingali's

Strengths:
Deep solid bass, nice sweet mid and top end. Holds composure at loud volumes. Good bang for the buck. At or below this price, almost a no brainer.

Weaknesses:
I observed problems with the 100v3's midrange clarity, probalby due to bass intergration. All those drivers seemed to cloud or muddy up the mids for me.

Similar Products Used:
Klipsch, Tannoy, Paradigm 60's and 100's both v2 and v3, Vienna Acoustic, Acoustic Research, Energy Veritas, B&W, Meadowlark, Totem Acoustics, Martin Logan, Dynaudio, Zingali (where's the Zingali reviews? too new I guess..Made In Italy and just came to U.S. about a year or two ago.)
Most of these were merely auditioned, not owned. If I had enough money to have owned all these speakers, I would have gotten the Zingali 4S instead of the 4B