The 2002 Montreal Festival of Sound & Image!

Totem     Totem, well-known Canadian loudspeaker manufacturer, booked two rooms for this show. One to show their slender but potent floor standing Forest and Hawk loudspeakers, and the other to demo their new home theater spread the Dreamcatcher 5.1.   I liked the first room more, where a pair of Forests where quite impressive. The Forests were driven by Totem's own massive integrated amplifier: The Amber. In the same room a pair of Hawks were sporting Totem beaks. Vince Bruzzese, Totem's founder and president, was happy to explain and demo the audible improvement brought about by these chunky silver bullets. The beaks can also "improve" other loudspeakers claims Mr. Bruzzese. What ever the case may be the Totems did benefit from the beaks in place: The sound was less strained, more opened and with a more solid and tactile foundation.    next room: