Totem MANI-2

THE LISTENING ROOM

ROOM

SIGNATURE

our favorite) and its rounded sides, with gleaming WBT binding posts at the rear. Not visible from the outside is that, behind the woofer is a second woofer, connected in tandem so that the two move in and out together. That gives the Mani-2 its unique way with extreme bass and dynamics…and also gives headaches to amplifier designers. Just as invisible is that the cabinet is veneered inside as well as outside, to prevent warping of the monocoque structure. The inside is not stuffed with mineral wool, as most speakers are. Damping is done with borosilicate, an anti-vibration coating used in aero- space applications, long ago adopted by Totem for its speakers.

Since our original review the Mani-2 has been considerably revised, raising its efficiency somewhat and making it less fragile. And it is now available as a Signature version. Would we be as delighted as we had been a decade and a half ago?

We set up a two-part review. We would begin in our Alpha room, where we had listened to the earlier Mani-2 (since that was our only listening room back then). We would then move to the much larger Omega room, and put the Mani-2 up against our vaunted Refer- ence 3a Supremas.

EDBACKNINGF

LIST

Were we the very first ever to review a Totem loudspeaker? We think so. It was of course the

original Totem, the Model One. We were impressed with it, as we still are, and we eagerly awaited the Model Two. This was the Model Two, with a clever pun identifying it as the second model, all the while tying it to the company’s faux Native image.

The Mani-2, first reviewed in UHF No. 43, impressed us too. Though in pic- tures it looks like a slightly larger Model One, it is different in both configuration and sound. With its twin woofer setup, it was capable of very deep bass that was perfectly controlled right down to its lower limits. We concluded that the

30 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

Mani-2 was one of the world’s truly great loudspeakers.

It did, however, have an Achilles’ heel. Its configuration was accompanied by a strange impedance curve unlike that anticipated by most amplifier designers. Even Totem’s own (short-lived) Amber amplifier was not recommended. An inadequate amplifier could actually damage the Mani-2!

But oh, how it sang when properly driven! We recall taking a pair of them to a show right after our review. The first afternoon a blind visitor spent a quarter hour listening before asking us what subwoofer we were using.

Superficially the Mani-2 looks like a bigger version of the Model One, with its attractive finish (mahogany is

The Alpha room

The room is rather small, but our Living Voice speakers are quite comfy about 30 cm from the absorbent rear wall. The tonal balance of the Mani-2’s was a little strange in that position. Pull- ing them another 15 cm closer to us did the trick. Note that our photo shows the speakers sitting on a pair of Totem’s own T4L steel stands (C$775/US$750). Using them would have meant filling them with sand, however, and we opted instead for our own extremely dead Foundation stands. Dollops of Audio-Tak held the speakers tight.

The power amplifier in that room is a Simaudio Moon W-5LE, which is explicitly not recommended for the Mani-2’s. We were told off the record

76 specifications

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