Totem Mani 2 - Modern Day Equivalent

Hi-Fi Corner
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Hello All

I have had my Naim gear packaged up for years as I have been living in a rather small house where I would never be able to turn it up to any reasonable volume. Anyway, I am now thinking about setting it up again, and am recalling a lovely pair of Totem Mani 2 loudspeakers I owned (and stupidly sold on) many years ago. I was driving them with a 180, which really was not enough. But for the odd CD, they sounded amazing. I would love to get something similar and was wondering what exists of this style in the current era? I am really not up to date at all on recent releases. Any help appreciated.

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Possibly dynaudio contour 20, a good starting point i’d suggest.

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Kudos Titan 606 would be a modern equivalent to the Totems IMO

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The 505 maybe, but they are much more expensive assuming sticking with the £4k price of the totems. The mani 2 used dynaudio drivers hence the suggestion of starting with a similar standmount dynaudio speaker.

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4k in 2010 is getting on for 6k now…

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Only if you have invested wisely. Would i have to spend £6k now if id spent £4k 10 years ago? Maybe with kudos speakers for example as they have all received healthy price increases.

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Neat ultimatum Xls.

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dynaudio s40 (?)

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It might be worth saying what the rest of the system is. The Manis were a beast to drive and even a 300 was a bit borderline by all accounts.

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Thanks. Some interesting ideas there, I will do some research.

I remember the Manis with Jacques Loussier… or maybe Mr. Jacques just sounds great on any system!

I still have the 180, with an 82/Hicap and Sony CD player. For now. Next is an olive 250.

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I was never a big fan, but I heard the Mani-2 a lot back in the day (I’m in Montreal where Totem is omnipresent). And it was a really special speaker.
And isobarik.
I don’t know how the speakers mentioned can be considered ‘equivalents’.
Call a Totem dealer and ask his-her opinion?
Or go all nostalgic like I did and go back to your fave speakers of 20 years ago :wink:

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Given the isobaric driver arrangement, I would look at Neat XLS for modern old school.

Or second hand Mani 2 or Neat MFS…

Or Kudos 505 for modern new school.

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I have the Totem Forest Signatures on my SN2, but they’d go to a 300 easily. And I have Totem Hawks on my Nova, which no doubt can go higher up the range to. One Forum member has Hawks on a 300. You can check their web site for bookshelf speakers if they are your preference.

What’s the rest of your system?

If you are on Facebook, there Facebook group is pretty active and can chip in too.

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I’m still using Totem Mani-2’s.
Originally used them on a 250.2 and while they showed flashes of brilliance, the 250 couldn’t drive them properly. The 300 that replaced them was far better but on some recordings just fell apart. The first track on the London Grammar LP springs to mind - it was a total mess.
A couple of years back I swapped to a 300DR. My dealer made me a great offer that basically justified paying the difference in price to trade in rather than service and get a 5 year guarantee to boot.
The Dynaudio 40’s have a similar spec from what I remember of the write up.

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So how does 300DR work with mani-2?

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The 300DR works great.
When I picked up the speakers from my dealer the European distributor, Wim, was still at the store.
He spoke at great length about how to get the best out of them and his belief was bi-amping was best.
Never tried that though.

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That’s my experience of London Grammar too :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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