Totem Hawk vs. Forest

totem regularly shows it's products with Plinius at the shows. There are used integrateds on audiogon regularly.

I run my Forests with a Plinius 8200 MkII as well. I think the components mate very well together. With the introduction of a new series of integrateds for Plinius, perhaps the 8200 or 8100 will become even more affordable.

Congratulations Icsi, please let us know how you like them. I don't know what kind of following this speaker has here, but I've gotta believe it's a real contendor. Please update us all.

Latest update: It took a while, but I now have 60 hours of burn-in time on the Forest and still have a ways to go yet to reach the 100-150 hours as recommended by Totem.

Initially, the Forest sounded a bit harsh in the high-end with a narrow soundstage but now they sound much more refined, detailed with a wide sound stage. I really like these speakers. They seem to disappear in my room and I find myself just enjoying the music, which is how I think it should be. I've been listening to all my old CD's again and hearing things in the arrangements that I did not hear before with my old speakers.

BTW, I don't use the subwoofer when listening to two-channel music with the Forest. My subwoofer gets in the way of the Forest and muddies up the sound. The bass from the Forest sounds full, quick and tight and is more than enough for my listening tastes.

Thanks again to everyone for your advice on these speakers.