Floorstanding loudspeakers — Totem Acoustic Forest Signature

Totem Acoustic of Montreal builds the Forest Signature as a two-way tower, and the company describes it as both the celebration and culmination of the Forest line, a tower that has stayed in the catalogue for many years. Compared with the standard Forest it gains new critical components and a revised finish programme, but retains the narrow cabinet of its sibling. Totem lists it at USD 7,800 on its own site.

Key specs that matter

Two drivers do all the work. A 6.5 inch woofer driven by a 3 inch voice coil takes bass and midrange duties, and a 1 inch dome made of aluminium and titanium handles the treble. The handover sits at 2.5 kHz with a compensated second-order network. Totem rates the response at 28 Hz to 22 kHz within 2 dB, measured in room, with 87 dB sensitivity. Nominal impedance is 8 ohm and the lowest point is 6.4 ohm, and the suggested amplifier window runs from 50 to 225 W. Each cabinet measures 19.8 x 91.4 x 29.2 cm and weighs 20.53 kg. Owners are told to allow 100 to 150 hours of break-in.

Engineering and use context

Every woofer and tweeter for this model is individually inspected, measured and tested by Totem, and all drivers are proprietary designs engineered in-house and then produced to its specifications. The crossover is hand-built rather than mounted on a printed circuit board, which Totem avoids because it regards laminated tracks as weak and inconsistent. Parts include non-resonant MR capacitors, Orange Drop bypass capacitors, oxide and metal foil resistors and large air-core inductors, joined with WBT silver solder. The enclosure uses Lock-Miter joinery, in which the panel edges physically interlock, and the maker claims this makes it up to five times stronger than a conventional V-groove cabinet. Variable density fibreboard forms the walls, and borosilicate damping, which Totem says does not deteriorate with age, controls internal energy. An articulated claw lets the owner adjust the rake angle, and the rear carries a black anodised aluminium plate while an enamelled Totem skid plate sits underneath. Finishes are Dusk, Ice, High Gloss Cherry and High Gloss Mahogany, the gloss versions using rift cherry or ribbon stripe mahogany veneer under a multi-coat polyester finish.

Pairing

With an impedance curve that stays high, the Forest Signature presents a gentle load, which means modest integrated amplifiers and valve designs near the lower end of the recommended power window are workable, while larger solid-state amplifiers stay within the upper limit. Gold WBT terminals allow bi-wiring with two runs of speaker cable.

Alternatives

Totem also builds the standard Forest, the less costly original version of this slim two-way tower.