Koss Totem Mani-2 User Manual download pdf (Page 32)

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Listening Room

W

ere 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

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

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.

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

Totem Mani-2

Signature

The Listening Room

30 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

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