Totem Element Ember with Lejonklou

[Ozzzy189]

http://imgur.com/a/1ySJz
http://imgur.com/aTvwE8j

Hello everyone.
This is a short post and I will add to the thread as I have more to contribute.
Chris from HiddenSystems has loaned me a lovely pair of Totem Element Ember in gloss white to try with Freddie's boxes.
I've got them on majik 109 stands with three russ Andrews oak cone feet to sit them on the top plate of the stands without spikes making any marks. This seems satisfactory so far, I'm not a fan of squashy rubber under hifi things preferring a more natural and firmer alternative.
I've tried a few speaker positions, and even had them across the room instead of down as they are in the pictures. So far they seem, to me anyway, pretty unfussy about position-apart from when I went 'crossways' and they were too far apart, but that could just be me and my room. From the half day I've had with them I can say they're a lovely standmount hifi speaker, nicely built and finished with high quality wbt binding posts on the rear. I wish there were only two though, I can't stand having a link in there.
I've played all kinds of music and they seem to pretty much like everything! They'll be great for party time, and maximum volume on the Lejonklou kit drives them loud enough with bags of clarity.
I'm awaiting a new atacama rack so hope to update the pictures soon.

More to follow,
Ozzzy.

[lejonklou]

Cool - with a bit of an odd shape, no?

Is the Ember the little brother or sister of Totem Element Fire? We did listen to the Fire's briefly at Hidden Systems last time. They were quite impressive.

[Ozzzy189]

Yes Fredrik they are. They're much bigger than I thought too, they slope down from the front to back, the bumf on their website claims that there's an acoustic reason for this. I'm going to put some more details up as I listen but last night Jane and I played over two hours of music and nothing hurt our ears, they're very listenable. Tom petty, Roy orbison and pink Floyd particularly stood out, and Jane commented that the who sometimes gave her a headache, not here.

[Ozzzy189]

I'd like to hear them with monos as I think the little extra grunt would go a long way with these. Also stands... It's a minefield out there. If I bought some in the future I'm sure I'd have to get the proper totem stands.
Against the akudorik...similar price, could be a pretty interesting face off but these party and rock which is more my bag whereas I'd expect akudorik to be more suited to jazz and classical. We shall see.

[Ozzzy189]

http://totemacoustic.com/en/hi-fi/compa ... ent-ember/

[sunbeamgls]

Interesting to read this Ozzy.

Not sure I could cope with your wallpaper - I think I would suffer from an imaginary buzzing sound on my hifi :-)

[tokenbrit]

Not sure if this is fair or if I'm misreading between the lines, Ozzzy, but it doesn't sound like you've connected with these speakers... yet? You were so enthusiastic about the Tundra Stereo, when you first got it, but it feels like these Totems are listenable, but maybe don't move you in the same way... especially if you're considering Mono's to handle them. Trying not to guess ahead, and will wait for the next installment with interest. Are the Embers still new, or do they have a good few hours on them?

[Ozzzy189]

I'm taking the time to enjoy them and give them a good workout. I'm also trying to be less excitable, I'm 44 not 14, but I certainly take that point ! They're excellent and work especially well with the wallpaper, which so far is a 50/50 split regarding if people like its or not. Please don't start a poll on this!
Seriously, the biggest compliment I can give them so far is that they just disappear into the room and there's no harshness or listening fatigue with these whatsoever. I do need to try a little fine tuning and positioning but I am impressed. Would I buy a pair? Are they good enough for me and my tastes?
Yes.

[Ozzzy189]

They've got plenty of hours on them, yes.

☺☺

[Charlie1]

How much are they Ozzzy? I couldn't find a price on Google when I had a quite look.

[HIDDENSYSTEMS]

£3995 UK Pounds inc.20% Tax. Black or White (Gloss only) We have the larger Element Fire £5995 too.
They are distributed by Joenit in Belguim who cover UK.

Full price list here as "Price list" under the Arro Tech Details. I'll bunch all price on one page over the weekend

http://hiddensystems.co.uk/hi-fi/hi-fi- ... acoustics/

Chris
07831885781

[Ozzzy189]

Thanks Chris.
Anyone fancy a listen to these little marvels and trip to North Lincolnshire just off the Humber bridge just message me.

[Ozzzy189]

http://imgur.com/5kL6Itx

Neil, I hope you might feel better about the wallpaper after I tell you it's only the rear wall that's got silver dragonflies on. ☺☺☺
They continue to impress.......
Detailed write up next week.

[ThomasOK]

I have been interested to see your take on these speakers. I heard the Fire at CES in January 2013 and I was quite impressed. Despite it being an unfamiliar room with music I hadn't heard before and electronics I didn't know I still found the music rather engaging. When I came back we talked to the new distributor but he didn't have Fire or Ember models to audition. We were lent a couple of the smaller speakers but we didn't find them to be what we were looking for and I was never able to get a set of the Fires in the store. The Fire model uses a much different tweeter that is supposed to be a significant step up but I haven't heard the Ember so I can't verify that.

The cabinets follow the theory of avoiding parallel reflecting surfaces that is in fashion now. Not being a speaker designer I can't say whether this kind of architecture makes a better speaker or not. The Element series takes this pretty far with none of the sides parallel to the opposite side. An interesting design and musically one that seems to hold promise.

[Ozzzy189]

Thank you for your insight Thomas. There's a special 'space age' NASA type insulation inside applied to the inside of the cabinet that will not degrade over time too. Chris at HiddenSystems loves the Embers, and i've asked about the fires, but they're a hell of a lot of money and he thinks that the Ember hits a particular sweet spot. Maybe the little ones are easier to drive?
You know what? I can see this coming from a mile off..... These speakers do nothing wrong. At all. They're one of those that just go about their business, playing anything you throw at them, and you're busy enjoying the music to be in critique mode. And then you have to return them..... And your life is suddenly empty. No more music. Back to shouty speakers that give you a headache after a few hours.
As much as I love the majik 109, and I know these are in a totally different league, they (109's), can tire you out eventually, less so with a kds1 and full Fredrik box count but I can't imagine what these can produce with the gear I had a couple of months ago. That is something to work towards!
I like these. A lot.
I'm trying to save my thoughts here you know, it's hard for me!
☺☺☺

[matthias]

One very interesting point is that the midwoofer is connected directly and crossoverless to the amp and the tweeter has a simple highpass filter. Regarding this aspect the Ember and the Zuaudio Druid have strong similarities.

KR Matt

[Ozzzy189]

Hello everyone. I thought I'd update you all after a fairly long period of inactivity in this thread.
I've been impressed with the totems, especially with the type of music I like. So, metal from thrash giants megadeth, pop craziness mixed with synth and rock of electric six, poppiness of erasure and the rich electronic sound of Jean michel jarre, these fantastic little speakers have really connected with me. There was something holding my usual enthusiastic nature back however and the usual suspects on here spotted that. Was I kidding myself? Were these as good as I thought? Were they a good match for the Lejonklou equipment I was pairing them with?
Well I suppose today was a real breakthrough day, something just clicked. The slightly held back midrange was pushed forward just a tad, bass got much more punchy and solid. In fact the whole sound was improved to a level I wasn't expecting. It was fine before but having to write about improvements can make you look a bit foolish really.
More slam, more control, more detail, more weight and definitely more music. I suppose it's easier to say more of everything really.
I'm seriously impressed. Not once have these speakers given me any kind of listening fatigue. They're not shrill or shouty (as Chris would say), they just play clean fast and precise music. The tune had this addictive stop/start quality, really fast and infectious, toe tapping and very enjoyable.
I've tried some Elvis presley, Neil Diamond and Roy orbison today along with the old unsquare dance from dave brubeck- always a good test of system agility. I think the the emotional connection with the music is one of Lejonklou's strengths and that only increased today.
What's elevated these speakers to Ozzzy levels of enthusiasm I hear you ask?
Well today I had a loan tundra stereo 2.0 delivered by the lads at HiddenSystems.
Fredrik, you're so bloody good at what you do. Can't really say much more really. Awesome job sir!

Anyway, I've had the speakers popped up on three solid oak cone feet on linn majik 109 stands which seems to work well but I am frightened to death if anyone so much as farts near them seeing as they're not fixed to the stands. It'd be interesting to hear what the stands totem themselves use and recommend.
I know Chris briefly had on demo the bigger brother to the element Ember, the Fire. I've not heard that one myself but if they're no harder to drive than these (totem recommend 50wpc amps minimum) then they should be fantastic.
Fanthorpes in Hull currently have the element Earth mid size floorstander in, so if I can get him round with em I'll post here.
Anyone in the market for a cracking standmount should pop these on their shortlist.

[tokenbrit]

Glad your experience with them is positive, and improving. Inspired by your posts on the Ember, I found that a local store is a Totem dealer, and has them on demo... I dropped in to have a quick listen - nothing that I'd call a demo, and only a quick listen because it wasn't great, and we weren't inclined to spend any more time there. This was as much a comment on the store, more so than the sound of the Totems. I only got to listen to them driven by Sonos & Rotel power-amp, bi-wired, and the Embers were on B&W stands placed in front and to the side of some small Totem floorstanders - not from the Element series. It was not a happy combo or setup, almost certainly not fair to judge the Embers, and barely worth commenting on the sound, which we found analytical rather than musical. What resonated with me was your comment about the held back midrange - that was exactly what we found: recessed, but like they were singing through a megaphone - quite shouty. I can't deny that they had a pace to them, but the combo somehow seemed to accelerate the song, like the band were just rushing through to get on to the next one... Disappointing but I don't doubt that the blame was in the setup, the bi-wiring, and in the partnering equipment - likely a lack of break-in too. This isn't to contradict your findings; more a comment on the store. Some large B&Ws were blaring in another room driven by Classe M600s - we had to walk out of there.
From what I heard of the Embers, it wouldn't surprise me if they would show the benefit of better source, pre- and power-amp, so I can imagine that a Tundra would be a big improvement, and that break-in, and better placement would bring (much) better results. Hope you continue to find improvements, and have fun with them.

[Ozzzy189]

Quick update...
Sold a 10m pair of Lindy premium gold phono interconnects on ebay and the guy came over to pick them up instead of waiting for post. He was a lovely guy from Malton in North Yorkshire who has built a few speakers. Very impressive they look too.
Anyway, he stayed two hours and we chatted and listened to music on my system. Jazz and female vocals mainly. Graham commented on the vocals of Diana krall in particular having a touch of siblance on certain parts, maybe it was the recording or her vocals but with Nora Jones the sound was far better. I seem to remember hearing this track with sagatun monos and not hearing such a trait. The track was walk on by.
Graham is a valve man at heart but was impressed with my set up, tuneful and musical were his remarks. One thing he was particularly impressed with was the midrange, something others have doubted with the embers. He also said he'd like to have heard them bi wired, although I'm well aware that is not really favourable with Freddie.
Anyway, he thought they were exceptionally well built and finished too. I have another a new hifi pal! That's what I love about this hobby, we all share that common interest ultimately.