Totem Hawk: Outdated compared to newer spks??

I have a 19-year-old pair of Mirage M5si's that still kick ass. They scale up and down really well with the source material, energize a room realistically, very natural sounding midrange and fast but relaxed treble, bass extension to about 26 Hz, and very uniform tonal balance and dispersion. What's not to like?

When something works very well, it becomes a classic, capable of being competitive for years to come. This doesn't surprise me with an older Totem model because Totem was often ahead of the curve and it often took competitors 5 years just to catch up.

One point that you may be aware of, Sunnyjim, is that the Totems sound their best when using high current amps due to their low sensitivity and the need for reserve power.
Agree with Czarivey that the Hawk is good, but if you can swing the cash, the Forest is the better buy.

The Hawk is very room dependent, meaning that it is fussy with its placement regarding walls, type of floor. But overall, a good speaker.

Agree with Lowrider57, even my Arro's benefited from a move from a Simaudio Moon i-5 to a Magnum Dynalab MD-209 and the extra power.

I listened to the Arro's, Staff, and Hawk side by side and picked the Arro's. Fortunately, the room was about as big and cluttered as my "listening room" aka bedroom, aka Home Theatre aka Office, so it worked out well. I will add the proviso that the Arro's lack bass, but what there is is very good.

First Mr. Parneer, I am not a great believer that older technology has the sonic charm to possibly sound better than newer speaker technology. On rare occasions, that might be true as several members have qualified. Basically, to me that is an old wives tale, If that were the case, then I might as well go on e-bay, and look for a mint pair of the original Advent speakers, or even maybe a pair of the defunct Rectilinear 3A's

However, Lowrider's points are helpful though I have heard them before; that is, the Hawks can be a pain in ass to set-up and very room dependent.This might be also true for the Forest, but I have read fewer complaints about that speaker. Also, I use a Rogue Sphinx hybrid integrated amp (100 RMS) which is not necessarily high current, despite using a variation of class D circuitry, like NuForce, Red Dragon, Bel Canto.

I don't want to start a quest for a new amp with that type of pedigree(though high current amps do provide better performance overall, especially bass) to run either Hawks or Forest. In addition, the least expensive used pair of Forests on Audiogon were I think selling for $2800. I never seen even a moderate condition pair lower than $2300. So no matter how much I like the Hawks, practically, they may be less than ideal sound, or not work for me

In my opinion, Totem's pricing had always been off the charts, and looks like Vince has continued that strategy with the Element line of new speakers. Inflated retail pricing forces resellers to offer Totems at proportionally higher prices which leads many buyers to pursue newly marketed speakers of other major brands

First Mr. Parneer, I am not a great believer that older technology has the sonic charm to possibly sound better than newer speaker technology. On rare occasions, that might be true as several members have qualified. Basically, to me that is an old wives tale, If that were the case, then I might as well go on e-bay, and look for a mint pair of the original Advent speakers, or even maybe a pair of the defunct Rectilinear 3A's

Huh? Where did this come from? I am not a fan of vintage loudspeakers either (Advents, Rectilinears?). The Hawks you asked about are a current model still being sold as brand new. Its just that they have been a model in Totems lineup for ten years now. If its still a new model though, its hardly vintage. So why the comparisons to vintage?

You asked about its design. The design is a ported 2 way floorstander. That design has been around 50 years or so and most likely another 50 years. Totem can keep the Hawk around another ten years in its line-up and I would think the model would still be relevant. Its a classic 2 way design.

Hope this clarifies the point I was making and good luck in your speaker search.