Totem Acoustic Sttaf Floorstanding Speakers
Totem Acoustic Sttaf Floorstanding Speakers
USER REVIEWS
[Jan 07, 2020]
infotrad
Strength:
Clean sound at lower volumes Weakness:
Highly distorted bass I compared them to Canadian "Sound Dynamics 300ti", which cost 3 times less, and the instrument separation and bass clarity were superior to the Totems. The owner of Totem has a wonderful personality, which in my view has a lot to do with the company's success. There are a lot of better Canadian and British speakers out there costing less than the Totem tine. Price Paid: 1200
Purchased: Used
Model Year: 1998
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[Oct 17, 2018]
Jeff Mackwood
Strength:
I bought my pair used, but in like-new condition, a year ago. First order of business was to design and build some grilles to protect the drivers from little fingers (or big fingers in some case. Visit any shop where these are on display and they all seem to have pushed-in driver dust caps!) Wood quarter round, grille cloth, and velco "dots" are all that's required in terms of materials to make a pair. Next order was to mass load each speaker with 6 1/4 pounds of lead shot. No effect on sound; made it far less tippy. I'm currently driving them with 100 W/ch stereo power amplifier. They are power hungry BUT they will also not play really loud. They like to be driven - just not really hard, when the sound gets muddy and compressed, especially with bass-heavy material. While I've not done so yet, but am planning to, they could really benefit from the addition of a subwoofer / bass speaker capable of operating from say 30-60 Hz. I suspect this will get rid of the lack-of-loudness / muddiness-at-high-volumes issues, and restore an entire missing octave (or more) of bass to some recordings. Don't get me wrong: as is, and when played within their limits, this is a very very good speaker, providing a quality of sound that belies their smallish appearance. There's not a genre of music that I can think of that I've not played through them. They don't favour any one in particular, although I've really liked female jazz vocals and acoustic rock / blues. I doubt that I would try using these in a surround sound home theatre / movie watching / listening situation. Again because of the dynamics limitation. Stick to two channel music; there's better alternatives for home theatre. By the by, these rate VERY high on the WAF scale. They've far exceeded the dwell time of any pair of speakers in my living room. Not available (unless old stock) new any more. Expect to pay in the $1k CDN range for a great used pair as of this posting - assuming you can find any. And the 3/5 rating: an honest and realistic assessment - which leaves room for all those much better speakers out there, but which elevates it above the bottom-dwellers. This is not a bad score; I'm a tough rater! Jeff Mackwood Weakness:
See above for strengths and weaknesses. |
[Oct 02, 2012]
Dave
AudioPhile
I've heard all the speakers in the Totem line, many times, and even owned a few of them, and the ones that I haven't owned, I've had on loan from my dealer. So let's just say I know Totem pretty well.
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[Jul 07, 2011]
dlscwby10
Audio Enthusiast
Purchased the Sttaf at BBR on Boxing Day for $1295 (msrp $1895 Canadian). I was happy with the price and I'm happy with their performance. Fantastic sound. I will be looking to hook these up to a new amp in the next year or so but for now I'm using a NAD T751 as 2 channel. I'm looking at Arcam, Atoll, or Naim but need to figure out what is best suited for them.
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[Jun 11, 2010]
nlc9090
Audio Enthusiast
Have paired these Totem Staff with Musical Fidelity A5 Integrated Amplifier. Main source of Music is an IPod played thru the Wadia 170i I Pod Doc and utilizing the Music Hall DAC 25.2
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[Jun 03, 2007]
Bonger
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
good detail and smooth highs from tweeter without excessive brightness of some metal dome tweeters. smooth transition of highs to mids. attractive looks, good all all round speaker
Weakness:
bass too boomy when speakers are pushed, "cabinet coloration" Upgraded to these speakers from the Totem Arros, however after 8 months use, I cannot say these speakers are superior to Arros, just different. Another example of how bigger is not better.
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[Sep 17, 2006]
Paul Lemmens
AudioPhile
Strength:
Controlled bas.
Weakness:
None. I upgraded my audio gear from NAD to Van Medevoort, a high end dutch audio equipment manufacturer. So, the next step was to look for a new pair of speakers. I had Dali serie Blue "Live" for more than 5 years.
Similar Products Used: Dali Blue "Live" serie |
[Mar 22, 2006]
audiofan j
AudioPhile
Strength:
Harmonically rich, BIG soundstage, great midrange and goes low to 40 hz. A beautifully built speaker cabinet with REAL WOOD veneer! This speaker has a very high WAF, especially in the mohagany finish.
Weakness:
Could be slightly soft on the top end with tube electronics, but.....this can actually be beneficial as a trade off, taming those CD's with too much high frequency energy. The Totem Acoustic Sttaf gets my vote for the best quality of build and sound for your hard earned dollar. My first speaker from Totem was their Hawk model and I am convinced it is their best speaker, and the best choice for under $3,000 - period! But....I wanted to get into tube electronics and ended up buying a 40 wpc Primaluna Prologue 2 integrated tube amplifier, which made it necessary to find a speaker that could be driven properly, with proper dynamics and great sound when driven by a lot less watts.
Similar Products Used: Totem Hawk |
[Feb 21, 2006]
Shiden Kai
AudioPhile
Strength:
Beautifully rich and understated look in mahogany Incredible frequency range given design and driver compliment Airy high’s, delightful mid-range with accurate and tout bass Great sound-stage, amazing depth, great dynamics and PRAT
Weakness:
The high’s can become difficult to tame in some rooms and on some equipment The same applies for the bass. Remember, to get the most of this speaker requires attention to detail in both room, placement, and associated equipment. It is one of the more picky speakers I have owned. This is my first write-up here at the reviews. I cannot think of a better way to break the ice than to briefly summarize my experience and impressions of Totem’s often over-looked achievement, the “Sttaf”. There is no higher accolade I can give the Sttaf than to say that through the plethora of speakers that have come through these doors in these past few years – none other have brought as much listening pleasure as these two divine miniature towers. In fact, these are the only pieces of audio gear that have remained in the house. So why have I kept these particular speakers? To save you time from reading more audiophile terminology – that answer can be best summarized as soul and emotion. They have all the right elements you would expect from a good speaker, and add a layer to the music that no other speaker I have owned or heard has been able to reproduce. It has also taken me years to appreciate the box-less sound, a feat that is quite amazing given its smallish two way enclosed nature. The cool thing about Totem’s entry level products is that they were designed to be used on a variety of equipment ranging anywhere from entry level receivers all the way up to audiophile approved components. With an easy load of 8ohms and a sensitivity of 89db, the Sttaf will work with the majority of amplifiers on the market. In fact, the purpose of the Sttaf is to act as a general purpose loudspeaker capable of delivering solid performance on a wide range of equipment, with any genre of music or audio format in many different rooms. Getting good sound out of the Sttaf is not a chore. However, seeking what it truly has to offer is. I have found the Sttaf enjoys being on the long side of a wall in a smaller room in a near-field listening situation. The tweeter should be facing near your listening position and both speakers should be spread a good distance apart and about 1.5 feet from any wall. I have personally found the Sttaf to sound best when driven by either Class-A SS amplifiers with zero feedback, or high powered vacuum tube amplifiers. If you wish to use a sub with your Sttaf – make sure it is high quality and sealed. Prepare to invest some time and effort and just hold to the promise of worthwhile rewards. The Sttafs have their limits. They are not an end to a means, but when treated right, they can become an intensely emotional speaker that is just right when the lights are low and you need the woes of the day stricken away. I give the Sttaf a value rating of 5 because it has been able to do things no other speaker I've heard can do. It has won my heart over many more exotic products and therefore I feel justly earns full honors. As you may have suspected, I also give the Sttaf an over-all rating of 5 because simply, it is "far better than I imagined". Similar Products Used: owned; Vandersteen 2CE Sig. Dynadio Focus 110. Dynaudio Contour 1.1. Meadowlark Kestrel 2. Audio Note Ax-Two. Totem Acoustic Hawk. Totem Acoustic Tabu. Polk Audio Lsi-15 / 9. Polk Audio SDA 2B. I could really go on and on.. |
[Oct 26, 2002]
Response
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
Ease of placement, build quality, driver quality, dual binding post (also very high quality), capable of producing a beautiful presentation from only 10-50 watts.
Weakness:
May seem pricey to some No grills (personally prefer not to use them) Not the "Tightest" or "Deepest" bass I recently picked up some Totem speakers and a pair of Staff's was included in the bunch. They were slightly cosmetically damaged in shipping so I decided to hook them up to make sure they were still functioning properly. Well, to make a long story short, I will not be selling these speakers and they will stay here for quite some time. I am ran them off a Jolida JD301 Hybrid at 30 watts per for most of my evaluation. The Jolida has mated exeptionally well with these speakers and the system does a fine job filling my average size room with a very enjoyable presentation. The bass is more than can be expected from a 5" driver and the midrange and upper end presentation is amoung the best I have hear in a sub $2,500 floorstander (I personally think the Dynaudio tweeter has the most non fatiguing, airiest presentation of any tweeter on the market). For the JAZZ/BLUES fan that concentrates on the accuracy of vocals, the Totem Staff is one to be considered. Most of my listening is older JAZZ such as Louis Armstrong, BLUES - Michael Hills Blues Mob Band, Eva Cassidy and some classic rock such as Alan Parson Project, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, etc. I highly recommend audtioning these speakers if you are in the market for a smaller floorstander in the $2k range. Associated Gear: Jolida JD301 30wpc Hybrid Creek 5350SE Music Hall CD25 player Music HAll MMF-5 turntable Sonneteer Phono stage (Solid state) Clarity Wires Cabling throughout Similar Products Used: Totem Mite and Mite-T Totem Tabu (needs substancial power) Response Audio Musik 1.5 Signature |