Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Totem vs Axiom???

i was wondering, how do Totem speakers compare sound wise etc to the axioms??? anyone who has them. are they detailed? loud? clean? crisp? etc??? TIA

Maybe you should go listen to them then report back?

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Maybe you should go listen to them then report back

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Good idea, I am very curious too!! I have heard that those Totem Forrest are great, but very expensive. I have had the chance to listen to some Totem bookshelves with a sub in a stereo setup, and really liked them. However, they were played with a tube preamp, Passe class A amp and some other devices (DACs maybe!!??) I didn't even know.

Back when I was auditioning CD players, I went to hear a NAD 541 and 523BE. They were set up in a small listening room through a full compliment of NAD seperates and one of Totem's smaller 2 way floorstanding models. Not positive which one either the Hawk or the Staf. When I looked at their diminutive size I was a little disappointed that we were going to test the CD players in that room through those little speakers. Well was I ever wrong. They sounded fabulous. Loud , clear, and detailed. Good soundstage. Vocals had that in the room presence. Beautiful fit and finish. I listened to parts of a handful discs I brought covering rock, folk, jazz and classical. Vocals were clear and detailed. The highs were not harsh or tiring to listen to. The mid bass and bass very nice and fairly low for the size of these little gems. I would still want a good accurate sub woofer if this was going to be my main listening speaker. I think my 60's extend a deeper and fill out the bottom end better. I was shopping for CD players at the time so I did not ask many questions about the speakers. The Totems were one of the speakers lines they carried at this high end shop. Other included Rega, McIntosh, PSB and my favorite Meadowlark.

Hope this was helpful in some small way. If you are still in doubt or testing mode and you have a dealer I would give them a listen. There are a lot of great speakers out there. Only your ears know whats right. Totems seemed a bit pricey for me. If I felt inclined to move into that price range their were other choices I was leaning towards.
oz

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Other included Rega, McIntosh, PSB and my favorite Meadowlark.

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A buddy of mine and I heard a pair of Rega R5 speakers recently. We both agreed that they were tremendous speakers. We also thought they were better than both our sets of speakers for 2 channel listening. My friend currently has a set of Paradigm Reference 60's powered by Bryston seperates. We listened to both vinyl and cd.