Possibly controversial: Totem arro overrated?

Before you go nuts and sell your speakers make sure they are set up properly. Make sure that they are square (use a bubble level). When they are square, put a laser pen on the top and swing the red laser dot on to the far wall. Put a post-it note on the far wall, and put a dot where the laser dot shines. Do the same thing to the other speaker, and make sure the laser falls directly on the dot which is on the post it, on the wall. If the laser on one of the speakers shines too low, shim, or adjust the speaker so that the laser dot is exactly on the pencil dot. Once you do this, the speaker will speak to you in sync. This will give you the best possible stereo image. Most floors are not level. Bi-wireing is good, and experiment with toe in and in some cases toe out. You will be amazed at how the sound will improve.

If I'm reading your description of the problem correctly, it sounds like something in your system may be broken.

"What I didn't really witness however, was the unbelievable imaging that everyone talks about, the image would waver from left to right and become sort of ubiquitous when it should be dead center. "

That type of thing shouldn't happen. It definitely sounds like a phase issue. The image should never move around like that. (Unless it moves around in the recording like when a singer walks around, or something similar.) If your wiring was wrong, and you were using a recording that you are familiar with, the voice will come from a different place, but it won't move around.

Its easy to check. Shut your amp off and go to just 1 of your speakers. Reverse the connections at the binding posts, black to red and red to black. If your speakers are biwired, do both pairs. That will make the speakers 180 degrees out of phase with each other. Play a recording with a center vocal and you will see that the voice is not between the speakers but more off to the side like it is comming from one of the walls. The point that I'm trying to make is that even though the imaging is not correct, it will not move around. The only situation I've ever heard where a fixed vocal image moves around is when it is done on purpose using a test CD. Its used as a demo to show what something out of phase sounds like.

Thats why I think something may be damaged. Since your SL3's sound OK, something may be wrong with your old speakers.

David, what I have learned with my current speakers is that the performance of the speakers is highly contingent/dependent on:

1. the electronics connected to them
2. the sources in the system
3. the quality of power feeding the system connected to them
4. and the associated electrical impedances created by all these variables listed

Impedance matches or impedance mismatches affect the sound of a system dramatically. Your Arros are not matching well with your other gear. Take the Arros to another system and you could hear a different result then you hear now. I have seen this happen with my past speakers. Back in the day, I sold my Infinty speakers to a friend of mine because I did not like what I was hearing. I went by his house a few weeks later and was instantly green with envy. The speakers were kicking butt, like they never did for me. They sounded awesome. I hated that experience and never forgot it.