I've personally had ARROS and FORESTS. In either case they need hi-current and high wattage amps to drive them: TOTEMS are all power hungry. From my experiences I had to bi-amp them to perform best.
TO YOUR POINT: No, I do not think that TOTEMS excel at low volume listening. Rather they excel when "let loose".
Because I listen to a lot of classical and female vocals, low level listeng nirvana was also my Holy Grail.
Yup... I finally found my low level listening Holy Grail, but only after I capitulated, admitted this was not going to work to my satisfaction, sold off the Totems, and sold the all the matched hardware; and replaced them all with REGA R9 speakers driven by REGA OSIRIS integrated amp / REGA ISIS valve cdp...sweet!
Good luck!