I have auditioned Totem Dreamcatchers, Arros and Forrest. All of them are really really amazing speakers musically. Forest is the best of the lot and wow...I have not heard any speaker that sounded so musical. Forest is not bright...not very laid back....somewhere in between....Perfectly fits my taste for Music. Suprising part is...those tiny Dream Catchers sounded very very musical and gave a good fight for musicality with Forest. That is very surprising considering the price of Dream Catchers. Arros are very good too. That showroom also had Totem Mite-1 and Mani2 also. But I could not audition them.
Now I need help. Dream catchers were so good musically. But when we switched to HT...man...It kinda sucked bad. I am not sure why....May be it is something wrong with the set-up (or) Dream Catchers are not good for HT (or) it is possible that DreamCatcher Center Speaker and sub-woofer need to be replaced with something else. It sounded worser than a HTIB. I am not sure why. Can anyone throw some light on this please ?
Also, please let me know other options for HT and Music from Totem incase dream catchers s not an answer. How about their
1. Mid-fi Systems with Mite-T / Mite / Staffs for HT and Music ?
2. Hi-end system with Model one (or) Forests (or) Model-1 Twins (or) Mani-2s ?
Although the Dreamcatcher looks like a twee (almost toy) speaker, it's actually a very effective transducer indeed. It's also not the easiest speaker to drive and does not suffer mid-fi electronics that easily. In that sense the Mite is actually a tad easier. I suggest that in HT mode what you heard was the amp simply run out of steam!
I agree that the Dreamcatcher is a ridiculously musical speaker, and this is in no small part due to the small drivers integrating beautifully. This is also true of the Arro but that speaker is a bit more difficult to drive than the Dreamcatcher, so you really need to match the Arro to better electronics. The Forest is obviously capable of a great deal more, but again it needs suitable power to drive it properly. The Forest is probably the top 'real world' speaker from Totem. It doesn't need a manic high power amplifier top be able to give of its best, but it does need more juice than other speakers of similar money.
The Mani-2s (and the Model-1s to a certain extent) need lots and lots of good clean fast power. This truly becomes high end and they really don't suffer 'ordinary' amps gladly! If the amp isn't up to the job, they sound harsh, lazy and slow. With decent power, they sound amazing.
"I suggest that in HT mode what you heard was the amp simply run out of steam!"
That's what I was thinking too. Four low impedance, low sensitivity speakers will test just about any receiver at higher volumes. What were they being driven with, just for future reference?
I serously doubt if the Amp has run out of gas. The amp used was a Arcam Amp. So I do not expect it to be out of gas. For that matter, I do agree that the HT performance was so bad..may be it had distortion. But belive me it was worser than Onkyo HTIB.
Well me and Frank agree on most things about Totems,somethings we dont,The Arro is a increadible bargain for its musicality,detail,soundstaging,bass extension for its size.As for the Forrest I think they are one of the most overrated speakers for their price in the speaker industry,the Hawk is the most real word speaker of all of them,its not fussy and it will good with modest electronics.If you have patience and a good ear the Arro is the best of the lot,their tone and relism and soundstaging are quite increadible,but they are very sensitive to anthing up stream,but they have that magic silly magic something that elludes the rest of the Totems as a brand all Totems are very engaging,but the Arro were just built for that purpose,the Mani 2s are increadible but be prepaired to spend thousands for them to be heard at their best.The Staffs are the least talked about of all the Totems,but they are a very good compramise between all the talents of all the Totems and have nice warm sound.The Rainmakers can be thrilling in a brief listen,but they are to tonally unbalanced to be chosen over the other Totems in that pricerange.I actually chose the Dreamcatchers over the Mite for its for dynamic bite and drive a more involving speaker and they are very close to the Arros sound,just scaled down to a large degree,but the Arros are just that good.The Model 1 is a speaker I could never get to sound right,but I have heard it sound vey good before on another system.The Arro are down right freaky good for the money and a lot if Totem asked for more for them,but you have match them right once you do that they will blow your mind.The DCs for the money a no brainer,if you dont have a lot of money to invest they are a silly value.
I am referring to this statement of yours : "The Arro is a increadible bargain for its musicality,detail,soundstaging,bass extension for its size"
This is where I have a doubt. They have good bass extension for their size. Forgetting that size, do Arros have bass extension to serve as Mains in a HT set-up like a B&W 703 (or) Revel F12? Revel F12 has very very deep bass and it creates a very wode Soundstage. I liked the musicality of all the Totems ( DC, Arro, Forest )...and they create a good sound stage also. But the sound stage created by totems has a very narrow sweetspot...whereas Revel F12 has a very very wide sound stage...even though Revel is slightly behind in musicality compared to Totems.
Tawaun...Do you recommend building a HT set-up with 4 Arros and Totem Signature center ? I know this will be a very very musicaly involving set-up. But can it be a rocking HT set-up ?
If you are gonna have the power the Arros are not gonna play as loud or deep as those speakers you listed,but it is more invlving.You could do that it would work,although I think the Dreamcatchers will work good enough and you can save money,you can get either the Thunder or Lightning sub,both are very musical and they play pretty deep.
I dont really care about how many SPLs (loud) the sound is going to be. My target is this.
1. I need to fill my 16 x 16 x 8(height) room with good soundstage and Music and at the same time enough SPLs to feel the HT impact. In HT i really like to see a a bullet shot have the real impacy as a bullet shot.
2. Deep and Wide soundstage for Music and HT. Revel F12 did this. But is not as musical as Totem.
As long as the above two can be fulfilled by totems, I will just buy it.
Based on your experience, can you please let me know whether Totems capabilities are enough to take care of the above two reqs in your opinion ? I will be usinga HSU-VTF3 MKII (or) SVS PC-Plus Subwoofers aong with my speakers.
I am surprised you said the Totems have a narrow sweetspot. That is not my experience. When I setup Arros, I usually toe them in only very little indeed. They certainly would not be aimed at the main listener which would narrow the sweetspot significantly and give too much focus.
An Arro bases surround sound system would easily fill your room. I would not use a Model-1 centre and use a Dreamcatcher centre instead since I would want to match correctly to the Arros. Also I would timbre match the sub with a Totem Thunder which is awesome in that system. The alternative I'd go for would be from M&K or REL since I don't know the HSU and SVS subs.
Let me explain what I mean by narrow sweetspot. With Totems ( all totems ), in stereo listening mode, I need to sit exactly between the speakers to have the effect of the music coming from just one phantom speaker siting in the center of the room. If I move and sit even 1 ft away from the center position, I start to hear music coming from the two different speakers separately...if I have moved 1 ft to the right, then i can clearly see the right speaker firing away its part of the notes. But with revel, I could sit anywhere and still get that effect phantom center channel playng the music and ths ound stage is really wide. I am not sure whether I was using the term "sweetspot" properly or not. That is why I gave you the explanation of what I was referring to as Sweetspot.
The Arros have a very large sweetspot,all the Totems have a very large sweetspot,Frank is right the will be extremely power in that sized room,as for the other subs Frank mentioned they will be good in H/T but knowhere near the Thunder in music playing 2 channel and it will have same sound in the bass as all the Totems making it able to intergrate seamlessly from the midbass on down