Totem Acoustic Metal V2 floorstanding loudspeaker

Well, you do play music through these highly stylised monoliths after all, and the sound is where the steep price difference quickly makes the £10K first-class Metal upgrade start to look like a fair transaction. In a direct A vs. B comparison, I recognise the same transparency and fast attack that I have come to associate with top-end Totems, but with the Metals, I hear so much more of the music due to the additional 7’’ Torrent drivers. I wrote extensively about the advanced technology in these Torrent drivers in my last review, but to quickly remind you with the Metals you are getting an additional driver’s worth of increase in the capability of the voice coil, an additional driver’s worth of improved magnetic cradle which allows for a most natural and organic energy flow, phase correctness, and ultimately rock-solid control. The magnification effect of having another startling expressive driver on each speaker in my listening room was nothing short of pure audiophile joy. Yes, I was hearing more detail, more nuance, and even more liquid transparency but now I was getting all the heft and slam I could handle as well. The added depth and space increase to the soundstage was so apparent that it will surely be equally as recognisable to an amateur as a seasoned audiophile. The abundance of new sound layers was pronounced and undeniable. There will be no splitting of hairs here, the Metal V2s absolutely blow the doors off of an already fantastic speaker in the Fire. What a cliché, but in my first couple weeks with the Metals installed I must have said “Wow this” and “Wow that” at least 25 times in my notes reviewing differing styles of music courtesy of a recently acquired Naim NDX-2 streamer. That digital combo was absolutely mouth-watering paired with the Metals as time and time again artists seemed finally be able to show me their true colours and true talent. I felt like it was the additional clarity and space the Metals offered that allowed me to start enjoying multiple selections which before the audition frankly I didn’t think I liked very much, I’m looking at you, Ornette Coleman! Heady jazz aside this new musical clarification and newfound enjoyment was a repeated and consistent experience, a sincere compliment to the game-changing nature of adding the Metals to my rig.

Digital was not the only source the Metals could make shine either. My Sumiko Starling/Rega RP-10 analogue front-end combo also never sounded better than with the Metals, quite a bit better actually. One of the first of many memorable vinyl epiphanies I heard listening to the Metals was the Speakers Corner masterful reissue of Bill Withers’ Just as I am [Sussex.] I’ll direct you to the short, but touching ode Grandma’s hands. The Metals speakers absolutely exploded the sound of the kick drum into my listening space on this track. There was such a burst of vitality and energy release contrasted by such a slow-motion and beautifully measured decay that it absolutely felt the thrill of a first-time listen though it has been on and off my platter for years.

Sticking with Speakers Corner records (why not, they are the best after all), I can tell you that listening to Janos Starker’s suites for unaccompanied Cello [Mercury] was also a near-religious experience paired with the Totem Metals. The point is easily made on any of the tracks so start at the beginning with Suite No 1 in G Praeludium. The Metals push the cello right out into the living room in a way that was disorienting for the first few moments it was so untethered to the speaker cabinets. In a way that you would read the sound if someone were to break a wine glass on a wall close behind you, the Metals endowed Janos’ playing of the cello with that electric “in the room” crispness that can not be faked. When Janos draws the bow across the strings and you hear his physical mannerisms and body shifts coming through in space behind the cello; word to the wise, make sure you know who is presently in your house. You wouldn’t want to have to jump up to look in the other room for robbers (as I did more than I would like to admit) while getting used to the knife-edge detail and realism the Metals illustrate so well.