Totem Forest Speakers.....

I've owned the Hawks and Auditioned the Forest.

I disagree with Dave_b

The Krell 400xi IMHO is not a good mate for the Forest.

Both the Forests and the Hawks like a warmer sounding amplifier. Great matches i've tried include the Plinius 9200 and the Unison Research Unico (Secondo or SE). For more money the BAT integrated also works a treat and the Arye is also ok.

I used the Totems with no toe in and 6ft apart. They need to be more that 1ft from the rear wall.

I have to say that i find it odd Matt that you've clearly spent a tidy sum on your amp and speakers and yet have a Yahama source?

Mattoo, alot of overpriced fish in the sea...you have a GEM in the 400xi. It has been misused and not appreciated by more than a few. I've owned many a $10 to $15K amps and $20K plus speakers with $20K cables...experience and experimentation have afforded me some insight. The 400xi is a chameleon and will only show you it's potential if hooked up properly. I will help you if you want me to, or you can follow the herd over a cliff:O) Your CD player can be updated later..let's make what you have sing first.

I've never owned Totem loudspeakers (but have listened to them for many hrs.) nor Krell, but I will say the right amp can make a world of difference. I would suggest on a whim buy an older Marantz Reciever from 70's. I own the 2218 and I will say it has a certain warmth and musicality that is very special. I suggest a higher powered model and see what results you get driving your Forests.

My Forests sounded best about 2 feet from wall, 8-9' apart, toed in to the listening position, and mass loaded (about 50% of bottom chamber filled with small river stones -- there's another recent thread on mass loading). They also sounded better without grills, after 300+ hours of break-in and with the right cables. Ultimately prefered copper wire over silver with the Forests. Quite a few different amps of very different designs worked well with them, but they all had plenty of juice.

See if you can borrow a better source component (a Benchmark DAC-1 perhaps?) before driving yourself crazy with speaker placement. I know speaker placement is very important, but you have very high resolution electronics, speaker cables, and speakers, and a CD player that's not in the same league. Maybe the Krell/Kimber/Forest signal chain is revealing the Yamaha's shortcomings.

Your room and placement is asking for trouble--same resonating frequency for all four walls, half the wall length for the space between the speakers, and 1/4 the wall length for the space between each speaker and its wall.