Totem Hawks/Forests - Upstream Components

You might want to list a budget, room size and musical tastes. It will help people make recommendations.

Totem has been showing their speakers recently useing Plinius electronics, they are widely regarded as a great match. Either integrated or separates should work fine, generally separates tend to offer higher performance, though not always...most people recommend solid state with totem

depending on the speakers you choose the power requirments will be different...unlike virtually every other speaker Totem makes, the Forests are easy to drive, and dont require a lot of power, 50 watts will do fine, with their other speakers, the more power the better.

I recently heard the forrests with musical fidelity separates and thought they sounded excellent... i also heard them with bryston separates and like it far less.

As far as amps go, anything by Sim Audio. I heard a pair of Forests with a Sim W5. It was very nice indeed. The W5 is smooth, extremely detailed yet relaxed with tremendous bass. The W5 with 190 Watts, will make those forests sing ! I am pretty sure Totem and Sim have something going in terms of one using the other to voice...etc.. might want to give them a call.

good listening

Hi Grakesh. Several Integrated units come to mind
Simaudio I3
Simaudio I5
Plinius Integrateds

I personally run my Hawks with a Classe DR6 paired with a CA150 ( It is almost too much power).

The above are some general ideas. You might want to let us know what type of music you listen to.

I have the Hawks driven by a Classe CAP-150 integrated. They are considered very musical speakers with no dryness/harshness to them - also not the most senstitive - so that seems to favor solid state. Was also specifically told by my reputable dealer that they need some power to sound their best. I have noticed however that this set-up is highly critical of poorly produced music ie. most Alison Krauss, Pink Floyd, Nora Jones, well-done jazz recordings sound magical, while a lot of run of the mill rock/alternative is tough to listen to for very long. I think this is true of most mid/high-end set-ups. Having said that, I am actually considering experimenting with a tube preamp in front of my Classe to see if it eases that issue. Best advice - find a dealer that will let you audition both SS and tube gear in your price range with your recordings and source component(s) and the speakers. Sorry if this creates more questions than it answers.