Request advice-need "brighter" speakers than Totem Hawks

I'll second the shout for Monitor Audio.  Until recently I had some RS6 floorstanders.  They are great at dynamics, plenty bright and have great bass.  Here in the UK you can pick them up for about £300 second hand and should have no problem selling them on again for the same.

My other suggestion is ATC.  More expensive and the passive models need at least 200W imo but they're used in the studios of many of the people who make the music we listen to and are certainly crystal clear.

Updates coming soon on results of suggestions I plan to implement this weekend! Stay Tuned. Thank you all for the advising to date. There remains a lot to think about, but my experiences with room conditioning and cabling (having now messed around extensively with both those variables) is that the main issue lies with the amp or the speakers, with a slight chance that the source is not giving a good signal (Marantz SACD8005). Again, my gratitude for the excellent reflections and suggestions received to date. Report on latest trials coming very soon!
-B

In case you missed my question, how are the upper and lower binding posts connected? You said that you weren't using the stock brass jumpers.

New and engaging news:
But first...
Lowrider: I have used the stock brass connectors for bridging the speaker inputs on the hawks. I mislaid them, as previously noted (keeping my eye open, though). I have thus also tried some simple 12GA OFC jumpers, some shotgunned higher-end OFC (in both cases bare wires). I am presently using the 6" jumpers (Level 3) provided by Anti-Cables, which I like because they appear to radically reduce any chance of a short (spades), which I am paranoid about with the bare wires (stranded). Note that I have detected no differences in sound across ANY of the jumpers except that the non-stock ones I mentioned above all sound a little bit better than the stock brass plates provided. I tentatively plan to stay with the anti-cable jumpers. They are also really solid. Note: I remain convinced that the upper inputs give me a slight (ever so slight) edge on the high end over the other three possible combinations (bottom inputs, 2 diagonals). These differences of which I speak are not the types of differences that offset the deficit in high freq. output that I have been describing. 

Here's the Really Interesting News:
I switched the speaker wire channels at the amp. The problem with few highs stayed with the left speaker. Reminder: I think the highs are muted on both sides, but they are close to inaudible on the left. 

I was thinking it was the amp (Moon Audio W-5) and am kind of relieved it appears not to be that item. I still plan to swap in the Creek 100a for the P-5/W-5 and have a listen for confirmation of my impressions.

Anyone have any thoughts? I am thinking I need to take the pair of speakers in to repair service and ask a pro to determine if the tweeter or crossover is bad, at least on the left.

Thanks.

Another +vote for Thiel loudspeakers, if you so desire to switch out for the Totem.  Speaker repair is another option, if you want to keep the Totem.

Keep me posted & Happy Listening!