Negative Reviews

[David A]

I've performed a - 2.5db alteration to the bass on my Totems, it sounds much better. SAM at 0% too. More SAM added more bass and it becomes overbearing and muddies the midrange.

That's not problem with Devialet, but with your room and/or speaker positioning.

I think @Delija is right and that it is a room or setup problem.

I've had a similar problem, recently solved by repositioning a couple of my acoustic panels. I've found since upgrading my speakers a couple of years ago to Focal Sopra 2s that SAM resulted in a hardening of the lower mids which I found noticeable on female voices. I was also having room issues since getting the Sopras which were not evident with my previous speakers, Dynaudio Contour 1.3 SEs, which I figured were room related due to their lower extension in the bass and spent time experimenting with a different speaker placement and also with my acoustic room treatment over a long period. I've finally found a panel placement which results in a better room response in my bass frequencies and seems to have eliminated the problem in the lower mids when using SAM but I'm still keeping SAM set at 0% in my system.

At 0% SAM is on but just performing phase correction. As you increase the % it seems to apply an increasing amount of EQ in the bass to further boost bass extension and that can result in problems if the boost at a particular frequency coincides with one of your room modes which can result in an exaggerated peak with a longer decay time which can cause issues in the lower mids. You may well be able to solve your problem with speaker placement so the speakers don't load a problem room mode as much, or with acoustic treatment, or a combination of both if the problem results from a room mode being excited too strongly. You may even be able to dispense with the cut from the bass tone control. It may take a bit of time and effort finding a good solution to the problem but it will be worth it. If you have your speakers.

I checked Totem's website and they say the speakers can be placed quite close to the wall but a photo in one review showed a rear port. As an experiment I'd try increasing their distance from the wall behind them a bit, especially if you have them really close to that wall or to a corner. I t think you'll lose less bass than you may think and, if the problem is a result of too much bass gain from proximity to the wall, you may notice a gain in bass clarity as well as a reduction in the problem you report. If you get that you may also find that you don't need to reduce your bass tone control setting and may even be able to use SAM as well though if you can then use SAM you may find that you want to keep it set to 0% or to a very low level.