[jcoat007]

I might be interested in getting a small pair of floorstanders like the Totem Hawks.  

Anyone hear them and have any comments on them?  good or bad?

Thanks

Steve

[ehider]

Awesome, balanced, very musical and extremely refined but obviously not a true full ranger.

Their downside is that they are a bit expensive compared to other speaker offerings (from other companies) that have better low bass and dynamic abilities at the same price point.

[jackman]

I never listened to them, but I did check out a pair of their speakers at a shop one day.  They looked really nice but the side walls seemed to be a bit thin.  This may not matter, they could have sounded great.  Just something to look at.  Many people have great things to say about these speakers.

J

[Ravi]

I've heard the Totem Staaf (?).  Its is a mini-floorstander.  Its an incredible speaker, and has tremendous bass for it size.  One of the better bargains out there IMO.

[jcoat007]

Ehider:

Any suggestions?  WAF is a high priority and the whole Totem line looks real nice IMO.  I have heard good things about them, but have not heard them.  Your suggestions are appreciated.  

Associated equipment:

Odyssey HT-3 w/ cap upgrade
Marantz SR19-EX as pre-pro
Pioneer Elite DV-37 driving a mensa DI/O on 2 ch

This will be the front of a 5 channel setup, so eventually I would like to voice the front three the same.  

Thanks

Steve

[ZooDog]

I listened to the Forest a month or so ago and I thought it was very well balanced and had very good bass considering its modest driver complement.  It struck me as being similar to a Dynaudio but with a slightly warmer sound.  I thought they were a little short for listening other than while being seated, but they still have pretty good dispersion so it's not a huge issue.  What kind of music do you listen to?  If you have a big room and listen at high levels the Hawk might not be up to the task because it uses a 5 1/4" woofer as opposed to the 6 1/2" used in the Forest.  The salesman told me that apart from the bass the two sound very similar.

[Vinnie R.]

I might be interested in getting a small pair of floorstanders like the Totem Hawks.  

Anyone hear them and have any comments on them?  good or bad?

Thanks

Steve

Steve,

I have listened to the Hawks before and thought they sounded great, but I ended up buying the Vienna Acoustic Mozarts.  The Mozarts retail for $2,500, which may be slightly more than the Hawks, but they are also a small floorstander with a high WAF and sound fantastic.

Just thought I'd give you another option to look at.  

Good luck,

Vinnie

[BikeWNC]

Here are some Mozarts on audiogon.

http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?spkrfull&1053863319

Andy

[ZooDog]

Here are some Forests:

http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?spkrfull&1053923722&class&3&4&

[Andrew Lamb]

I did a bit of listening to the Hawks, and found them really nice, but kind of thin, I think that was because they really didn't have any authority on music even remotely low. Definately a ste pahead of the Sttaf though.

Nice speakers though, I think all the Totem line looks gorgeous.
I don't suppose you're looking for speakers this large, but if you ge ta chance, listen to the Winds. They're large and bulky, but sound (and look) incredible.

[KeithR]

Totems also are infamous for being hard to drive.  Check out the specs on the Manis for instance.

Just another consideration....

[rbs986]

totems are great sounding speakers. I have 2 pairs: model 1's (bi-wire version) in my audio room and a pair of Arro's in my den. I listened to the hawks and the forest speakers at he2003 and they were very musical and delivered a big sound for such a small speaker. I use a rel subwoofer with my model 1's and no subwoofer with the arro's (the arros are smaller than the model 1's or hawks) and have amazing bass for such a small speaker (see reviews). The hawks would not need a sub for quality playback unless you wanted to shake the walls or you were into rap type of music.

[JohnR]

Is it still the case that Totems are *way* more expensive in the US than in Canada?

[TheeeChosenOne]

The Hawks sounded very good and had incredible bass for being such a small floorstander.  High WAF.

For the price, however, you're entering into a category that is very competitive.

At a cheaper price point, (around $1200 street) you could get great sound from the Quad 22L:



They come in these WAF colors (very high craftmanship):




Regardless if it's the Totems or these, you'll need a good sub for HT and maybe some low hitting music.

[TheeeChosenOne]

You may also want to consider these amazing sounding speakers.  Very high WAF (different colors available, high fit/finish) and sound incredible!  More LIVE sounding than the Totem Hawk for sure.   Very FAST and DETAILED, w/out sounding fatiguing.  They're small, thin and can be placed against the wall with little adverse effect since the port hole is at the base (instead of front or back) of the unit.

http://www.odysseyaudio.com/loudspeakers.html






I think Klaus is sellling them at $1300 nowadays.  Contact him and see.  You get a trial-period to see if you don't like them.  

Thus far, the reviews are coming out on this new speaker line.  The tnt-audio reviewer is writing something up about the bookshelf shoot-out calling them the best under $1k.  Show reports also give kudos to this great sounding speaker line.

[rbs986]

I spent quite a bit of my time in both the Odyssey room (i have their monoblock amps) and in the Totem room (i have their arro's and model 1 speaker systems). I was very impressed with the sound of these rooms, more so than the rooms costing $$$,$$$. To hear great sounding equipment for a couple of $,$$$ was very impressive. Were they the best sounding rooms of the show, not quite (pretty close though), but could i live with there equipment and be happy for many years: yes, and i have been.

[Marbles]

For more reviews of the Odyssey speakers, here were my thoughts from a while back:

http://www.harmonicdiscord.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8535&highlight=speakers

http://harmonicdiscord.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3607&highlight=speakers