Полочная акустика — Totem Acoustic Signature One

The Signature One is a reflex-loaded two-way monitor from Totem Acoustic of Montreal, launched in 2017 as the 30th anniversary model of the company. It pays tribute to the original Model 1 of 1989, the monitor that established Totem, and borrows elements of that design while adopting a different driver set and a higher impedance. The launch price was USD 2,650 per pair, and the maker site now lists it at USD 3,800 per pair. Totem says each unit takes about nine hours to build.

Key specs that matter

The mid-bass driver is a 6.5 inch unit with a mineral-infused cone, derived from the woofer in the Totem Forest, and it uses a 3 inch voice coil in an underhung layout with a neodymium magnet. The 1 inch tweeter is a SEAS unit with a chambered metal dome made of an aluminium and titanium alloy, mounted in a rear chamber. A second-order network divides the band at 2.5 kHz. Totem rates response at 45 Hz to 22 kHz within 3 dB, sensitivity at 87.5 dB per watt at one metre and nominal impedance at 8 ohm, where the Model 1 was a 4 ohm design. Each cabinet measures 195 x 350 x 270 mm and weighs 10.5 kg. Finishes are Black Veneer, Mahogany Veneer and Satin White.

Engineering and use context

Totem builds the enclosure as a single-piece monocoque of 19 mm MDF, joined with lock mitres cut on CNC machinery. The front baffle is rounded, the rear is angled, and inside there is extensive cross-bracing, a sharply angled internal floor and borosilicate damping. The hardwired crossover is assembled by hand and uses air-core inductors with no iron, Orange Drop capacitors in the woofer bypass section, ClarityCap paper-in-oil capacitors of high voltage rating on the tweeter and closely matched low-tolerance resistors from Dale, RCD and Archromic. Gold-plated WBT terminals on an annealed aluminium plate allow bi-wiring. The large voice coil and long excursion of the woofer let a small box reach down to its rated low-frequency limit. Totem quotes a break-in period of 100 to 150 hours.

Pairing

Totem recommends 50 to 200 W of amplifier power. The modest sensitivity figure means a low-powered valve amplifier will run out of headroom quickly, whereas transistor amplification delivering power within that band suits the speaker. Solid stands, together with separate cable runs to the bi-wire terminals, make full use of the design, and a Model 1 Signature Center exists for matching multichannel setups.

Alternatives

The Totem LOON Monitor is a smaller and cheaper ported bookshelf speaker with a 5.75 inch woofer, a textile dome tweeter and a 20 to 110 W amplifier window.