Totem hawks good for low volume listening?

I completely agree with Akg_ca that Totems need hi-current, high wattage amps to drive them effectively. I haven't heard Mcintosh or Musical Fidelity with Totems so I can't comment on how well they'd work. I sold the Hawks b/c I decided to go with a 300b SET amp and the Hawks were nowhere near sensitive enough. I moved to Tekton Lores and now own the Lore-S which have taken away the urge to change/upgrade speakers...at least for awhile until I decide to go back to solid state ;o) Best of luck in your decision!

Do speakers with higher sensitivity ratings generally excel at lower volumes vs. speakers with lower sensitivity? Is that the spec I should be looking at? Thanks for all the suggestions.

There have been quite a few threads on equipment for low volume listening--I would recommend searching through them. In my experience, the quality of the amplification matters as much as the speakers for good low volume sound. That being said, a simple crossover and full range drivers tend to let more information through at low levels. You may also want to go for a headphone system for your low volume listening, which will probably sound the best for relatively less cost.