I use a pair of these for taking to some location recordings for choirs and similar, for playback. They go surprisingly loud for their size and price and have been pressed into service for situations where I have to cover medium sized rooms and up to 100 or so people for playback.
My son used them to surprisingly good effect as rehearsal speakers for his 5 string bass (!) and they went loud enough for house rehearsals of jazz-type music.
They won't compete with Totems, I'll bet, but they are a good honest little speaker that might surprise you in terms of performance per dollar. I imagine they are similar to the Audioengine 2, although the Fostex seems to have twice the power and is bi-amped with 18W to the bass and 18W to the tweeter, so they should play louder. Tha audioengine has 15wrms to each passively crossed speaker, both amps in one speaker.
