Any life after Totem mani-2 Sig. Recommendations please!

**LS4ME** · **05-10-06, 01:17 PM**

I have a pair of Mani-2 Sig. which I ran full range(29Hz-20KHz+-3db)with a B&W ASW 850 sub (Lowpassed at 40Hz)separately. This is because I prefer the sound not going through the sub's crossover. I am looking to upgrade to a good monitor of about the same size with good bass response. In my little room(12'Lx10'Wx8'H) I cannot accomodate big speakers. I listern to mainly classical and jazz
music. The bugget will be dependent on the recommendations
I will keep my mani-2 sig for surround purposes if I have the room to setup a HT Rig. The mani is a great speaker, but the highs, SEAS tweeter, is not as transparent and open as I like it to be on sacd play back. New/Used is fine as long as it is in good shap. Thanks in advance.

**JCD** · **05-10-06, 02:02 PM**

A couple of questions -- I'm not sure I understand

Quote:

This is because I prefer the sound not going through the sub's crossover.

I'm not sure why you don't set the crossover of receiver/pre-amp to 60 or 80. Even though the Mani-2s are rated to go down to 29hz, I think they'd sound better if they didn't have to.

As far as a recommended upgrade, I haven't heard the Mani-2's, but they should be pretty nice for the prices I saw on the web. The only monitor I've heard in that price range are the offerings from Dynaudio -- which I loved BTW. If space is a concern, the footprint of the their floorstanders is going to be the same as a stand mounted monitor, so you might look into that as well.

Other than that, most of the speakers I've personally listened to in that price range have been floor standers.

I'll be curious to see what you decide on though! You've got a pretty fun project!

JCD

**LS4ME** · **05-10-06, 02:20 PM**

Thanks for the reply!JCD. My pre-amp does not have any low pass Xover for me to adjust.
I am adjusting the Low pass Xover from the sub. I have tried setting the Xover from 100 Hz downward. Setting it at 60-80 range makes the sub sound too directional and pronounce-even at low vol. setting on the sub. What I am trying to achive is heft and articulation of the final few Hz(30Hz-14Hz). In my room enviroment, setting it at 40hz(the lowest offered by the ASW 850) gives it a reasonably good blending between the main speakers and the sub.

**JCD** · **05-10-06, 02:59 PM**

Ahh, now I see.. I'm not surprised that you end up with too much bass when you're using a powered subwoofer with a speaker running full range!

An alternative would be to try an outboard active crossover. Maybe something like a Rane AC 22 would do the trick. I bought one used for $70 recently on ebay. I might try giving that a shot to see if you can blend your monitors with your mains a little bit easier/better. This is what I plan to do with my listening room

As for the directional thing, I don't have an answer for that one. I always generally assumed that bass gets omnidirectional at these frequencies. I'll have to think/look into that one.

JCD

**kingkip** · **05-20-06, 11:44 PM**

You might try the Polk Lsi series. I love the highs on the Lsi9 and the price for such a good speaker is great.

**Brian Bunge** · **05-22-06, 06:48 PM**

Do you have any woodworking or soldering skills at all? If so, you can build some very nice speakers for far less than the cost of the Mani's. There are designs out there using dual 7" Dayton RS woofers and either the Seas 27TDFC or Dayton RS28A 1" tweeter that I'd expect to easily surpass the Mani's. They could be built as towers with about the same width and depth as your Mani's so they wouldn't take up any more floor space. Or you could build them as monitors using the Parts Express cabinets and still use them on stands. The towers would have better low end extension though. Either way, you get much better SPL capabilities in the midbass range as well as better efficiency with the dual woofer design.

**LS4ME** · **05-24-06, 11:09 AM**

Hi brian,
Unfortunately I am neither good at woodwork or soldering.

but thank you very much.

**Brian Bunge** · **05-24-06, 04:59 PM**

With the PE cabinets there's almost no woodworking required. Just cut the holes. You could probably find someone with a router that could do that for you. Also, I'm sure there's someone that could solder the crossovers together for you.

I know most people are reluctant to build a speaker, but you can get great speakers for the money and probably easily exceed the performance of your Totems.

Advertisement