Totem Hawk 86 db sensitivity

40-50 - not great is correct. 75 or 100 fir the Hawk.I'm opt for the Forests for that size room...

Hawks are great if you won't run them loud.
They need at optimum 100W each.

Kestrels do also benefit from stronger drive and can sound significantly more loud i.e. having stronger drivers. They're one of my favourite speakers in its class.

i would opt for the forests for that size of room. I listened to them at he2003 and they sounded fantastic. in a smaller room, i would go with the hawks. IMO, the totem speakers will need some power to do the speaker justice. I am not talking about 100 watts of sony or pioneer power, but 100 watts of classe, plinius, mcintosh,etc.. type of power. another solution is to go with the model 1's (or tabu) with either a rel or the totem subwoofer. i currently use the model 1's with a rel strata III sub and i am very pleased.