-Sweet, detailed and extended sound
-Strong bass
-Excellent imaging and soundstaging

-Mids and highs slightly less precise than Model 1, a reference in that matter.

A truly musical speaker, especially with tube amps. I never experienced any muddy bass with it, even in smaller rooms. Last reviewer's problems must be an electronics mismatch with the speakers or funny room acoustics.

Indeed a an excellent floorstander!

I need to set the record straight on my prior review of the Totem Forest. Upon returning the Forests to the dealer my comments regarding the speakers not measuring up to Totem's high performance standards were met with disbelief. Examination of the demo pair found them to be wired out of phase (evidently when a blown driver was replaced). This, of course, would cause pretty much the exact problems noted previously to be encountered.

Listening to the Totem Forests again, wired properly in phase in the dealers listening room, showed them to be on a par with other Totem products.

Beautiful finish, Fabulous range, Quality components

Claws may not work so well on carpet?

Well, since I purchased these second hand I avoided ALL the break in issues discussed. After using them for around two weeks and can safely say these are exceptional speakers both in sound reproduction and in build quality. Dynaudio drivers WBT binding posts..nuff said there..and take a look at the quality of finish on the cabinet. Sound stage is solid, imaging exceptional and the ability of these speakers to reproduce quality bass is unbelievable given the size of the cabinet. each instrument is separated well, distinctly noticeable and defined while still allowing the music to stay intact and complete as a whole. The highs are detailed and while there are certainly smoother speakers out there the music is brought to life which in the end is what its all about. Any review that does not rate these well is either a result of mismatched components or the afore mentioned break in issue. Give them a listen and they'll be on your short list! Listen to the whole collection again with a range and detail you've more than likely never heard. Great on all types of music but watch your the components you match them with.

System as follows: Primare Systems a20 mkII
Myryad mc100 cd
Transparent Audio Music Wave Plus cable

Similar Products Used:

Proac Studio 125
Monitor Audio 20se

Excellent build and finish, deep tight bass, and very musical.

Although I've the Forest for over a year, I'm still not sure if they are broken in or not. When I play it really loud, I can SMELL freshly planned wood coming from the rear tune port :->. My speakers maybe a bit different because I've the base filled with sand, but you have to hear it to believe the bass coming out from such a small woofer. It is not only deep, but very controlled and musical. Just listen to Take Five, both the original and G. Washington's version.

In my listening room the sound stage is about average (for speakers around the same price), but the imaging is stunning. I like live recordings, from jazz to classical to rock, and you can pinpoint the AUDIENCE who were whistling or shouting! I spoke to Vince over the phone and he told me to point the speakers straight ahead with no toe-in. Right now they are about 4' out from the back wall (brick), 2.5' from the side walls and 7' apart, along the short side of "my" room in the basement with a 9' ceiling. The room is acoustically untreated, but is carpeted and I also have an area rug in front of me. I have no doubt that the sound stage will open up if the speakers were placed in a bigger room, as the way I remembered it in the dealer's showroom.

I'm no reviewer or professional writer, and I don't know how to accurately describe sound with words, other than the above trivial attributes. All I can say is I enjoy listening to my CDs at home. Right now some of my CDs sound a bit bright, but I didn't notice that at the dealer's showroom, so it could be due to the rest of my music chain. For sure the CD player (Cambridge D500) needs to be replaced, but I'm still waiting for my SACD player. The rest are:
- Corad-Johnson PFR
- Monarchy Audio SM70 (a pair as mono blocks)
- DH Lab Silver Sonic (2 runs as bi-wire).
- Wireworld Equinox III+

Note that I'm using the two SM70 as mono blocks (70wpc) instead of bi-amping (25wpc). The Forest for sure needs more than 25wpc to drive just the woofer. The bass slam disappeared when I tried bi-amping.

I've to take my speakers down to the basement myself to avoid questions from my wife, so I've set a 70 lbs limit on weight (per speaker). There are better speakers that need a crane to lift (and way beyond my budget), but for something that I can move myself, the Forest is the best that I've heard so far, and it is a bargin here in Canada.

I heard these at the 2000 Montreal Audio show and was very impressed. With respect to the review immediately below, it seems a common observation that Totem speakers require a long break in period (up to 100 hours) and can sound quite shrill until this has been done. See for example the following review: http://www.totemacoustic.com/NewFiles/uhf-no-56.html#Anchor-14210

exceptional build quality, highly detailed sound, good low-end extension for a small floorstander

quite bright/harsh in the upper frequencies

I really wanted to like these speakers based on beautiful aesthetic presentation and subperb build quality. However, listener fatigue set in fairly quickly for me due to perceived extreme brightness in the upper frequencies, regardless of the exceptional sonic detail they seemed to offer. Needless to say, they were "unhooked" after a few tracks. Bass response, though, is worthy of mention.

I auditioned them with high-end Spectral amp/pre, Arcam FMJ cdp, and nordost flatline cables. Perhaps they would work better with tubes or much darker ss electronics? Don't know for sure, but the ProAcs that were next in line were incredibly pleasing, musical and extremely well balanced to this trained ear.

Similar Products Used:

smallish floorstanders including JMlab Cobalt 810/815/820, ProAc Response 1.5, Aerial Model 6, Joseph RM22si, Vienna Acoustics Mozart, Soliloquy 5.3, others

I heard these speakers today (driven by Bryston amplification) and was not impressed. They may have had deep bass, sounded very smooth, imaged very well but they also sounded warm. Totem claims that their speakers recreate the live experience. I have been to many concerts and live music does not sound like the Forests's portrayal at all.
If these are the characteristics that you are looking for, then these speakers are for you. But to my ears, the Totem's just did not sound right.

Seeing only four comments about this superb speaker prompted me to make a contributon. I am an audio dealer and of course, a hobbyist too. In my home-based business, I usually have about 20 or so pairs of speakers up and running or in the wings. That simply means that I can immediately compare products with each other. The Forests are some of the most superb speakers I have ever had around here. They do all the audiophile things people write about, they are just gorgeous in their cherry finish, but most importantly, they will sit you down for long listening sessions. I don't much care what type of music it is, and my customers bring plenty of varieties, the Forests just sing it out. These speakers are also small in a room. They are about as small a footprint as anything else, only about 34 inches tall yet they play very dynamically. I have used the Rogue Audio gear with wonderful results, Copland, Monarchy, all of it sounds just so good. The Forests are close to "all anyone could want" but they get an overall rating of four stars from me simply because the only product I could give five stars to would be the Wisdom Adrenaline system--it is in fact, a "STATE OF THE ART" system and I think only such systems as it should ever get five stars. The Forest is a speaker for the serious listener who wants realism, value, refinement, aesthetics, and musicality in a surprisingly small package. Overall rating, FOUR STARS.

After several months of auditioning, I have settled on the Totem Forests as my next loudspeaker. The short list came down to:B+W Nautilus 804
-Very Neutral, but a dry up top. Midrange seemed a bit lacking..good bass
Monitor Audio Studio 20se
-Warmer/smoother than the B+W's, but at the expense of detail.
Tannoy D300
-quite compact and good looking, but bass was lacking. good midrange.
Vienna Acoustics Mozart
-quite impressive, but the soft dome tweeter was bit lacking in detail for me.
Totem Mani-2
-impressive detai/soundstaging/imaging and great bass...but $4k plus 600 for -stands...
Totem Forest
-The best of all worlds. Sounds quite similar to the Mani-2's. No need for stands, great imaging, tight low bass. The Mani's have a very slight edge in midrange clarity...but not a $1600 edge! I ordered mine last week.
Rest of system:
Proceed CDP
Proceed PRE
Amp is a work in progress.... currently an old Yamaha that is very tired.

Deep base, full range, nice finish and cabinets

expencive for its class, long long long break-in time, low positioned

On the first day of hooking them up with my system that I'll describe bellow, I've heard only "boom" and "tss" -- midrange was shallow and lifeless something like in cheep studio or concert monitors. I was quite upset that $3000 speakers couldn't outperform Tannoy R2 in terms of midrange. The "boom" was quite impressive. The "tss" was dynamic but unstable, discreet and somewhat oscilating. There were a 2-3 weeks of continuous after work listening. Every day after the first week gave a step towards "the midrange awaiking". Every day after the second week gave a dramatic high range improvement towards stability and softness. Finally after 3 weeks the bass had also greatly improved in terms of detailability and depth. So as I see these speakers demand a patience from the buyer till they break-in.

The listening tests were made basically on three CDs:
-- Diane Schuur -- "Music Is My Life" HDCD
-- John Patitucci -- "One More Angel" on Concord
-- James Vant Hoff -- "Face to Face"
and some vinyls:
-- Chris Rea -- "Road to Hell"
-- Talking Heads -- "Naked"
-- Led Zeppelin -- "Physical Graphiti" and others...

The track 2 on "Music Is My Life" contains a very pleasant vibraphone that now seduces my ears along with worm and accoustic base in the middle of the strings!
The Patitucci's album proved that the base of the speakers is full and detailed.
James Vant Hoff is my favorite jazz piano player that isn't famous to the most public and audiofiles... While I was playing his CD, my friend came to visit me and he asked if I've bought any piano and who's playing?
For those audiofiles that love rock (high midrange requirements) you should despite anythig break them in before the critical listening takes place even if you cannot listen to them while that time -- the sound will "awake" and rock!

and finally my system setup:

-- J. A. Michell GyroDec RB300, Lyra Lydian Beta.
-- Monarchy Audio DT40 CD/LD Transport
-- EAD DSP 7000 III series 20bit DAC
-- Bryston p25mc preamp w/MC phono
-- Bryston 3b-st poweramp
-- JPS Labs Superconductor biwire speaker cables
-- Kimber Silver Streak balanced interconnects
-- Illumitation Dx60 digital balanced interconnect

I agree that these speakers stay too low. They currently fill with the sound my average living room which is approximately 230 sq feet + my couch stays low. In case of changing my living place, I will probably place them a little bit far away from the listening position to minimize the horizontal angle between tweeter and the listening position.

In conclusion I can say that for the common $3000 retail price they miss some mid-bass and mids details. Another words there could be better speaker in that range. I would've gladly got JM Lab Electra 915, but these aren't for my room.

Similar Products Used:

Vandersteen 1ce, Tannoy R2, Kef Reference 3