Floorstanding loudspeakers — Totem Acoustic Wind Design

Totem Acoustic of Montreal positions the Wind Design as a further refined version of the original Wind floorstanding model, built with hand-selected drivers and exclusive crossover components. Totem presented it in August 2009 and currently lists it at USD 18,000 per pair in three colours called Dusk, Fire and Ice.

Key specs that matter

The system uses four drivers. An 8.5 inch (21.59 cm) cast frame woofer is specially damped, two 5.5 inch midranges on cast frames use 3 inch voice coils with a wrap-around neodymium magnet structure for high power handling, and a 1 inch alloy dome tweeter has a flexible linear suspension and a low resonance chamber. Totem quotes 24 Hz to 21 kHz within 3 dB as an in-room figure, with 87 dB sensitivity and a 4 ohm nominal impedance, and recommends amplifier power of 80 to 250 W. Each cabinet measures 27.18 cm wide, 112.52 cm high and 35.56 cm deep and weighs 34 kg. The maker gives a break-in time of 200 to 250 hours.

Engineering and use context

The crossover is hard-wired rather than built on a circuit board, its components mechanically crimped together with WBT silver solder where joints are needed, and both transitions, woofer to midranges and midranges to tweeter, use second-order slopes on each side. The enclosure uses lock-miter assembly, inside and outside veneering against warping, variable density fiberboard with its densest material toward the edges, and borosilicate damping. The cabinet finish is a six-layer multicoated polyester, which Totem says adds structural rigidity to the enclosure as well as giving a deep lustre. The company's launch text describes a complex cabinet geometry, with the upper section shaped to keep the visual field uncluttered, and multiple midrange drivers as the core of the three-way layout. A newly designed articulating claw at the foot of the front baffle carries the chiseled Totem logo and can be adjusted to tilt the baffle back, while a rear skid-plate decoupling system, an aluminium plate with two formed feet, supports the back of the cabinet.

Pairing

The rear panel holds gold WBT connectors that allow bi-wiring, with the bass and upper sections fed by their own leads, or two amplifier channels per side. Driving this low nominal impedance well takes a sturdy amplifier with ample current.

Alternatives

Totem's Tribe Tower is a slimmer floorstander with two 4 inch Torrent woofers, a 1.3 inch textile soft dome tweeter and a crossover applied to the tweeter only.