Can the Totem Hawk Rock?

The short answer is YES. I think as long as you have a good quality, high current amp, there shouldn't be any problem.

I brought in my McIntosh 7300 (300Wpc) amp into my Totem dealership here in Singapore and the totem hawk rocked w/ AC/DC and had a surprisingly good base response for these tiny boxes!

Having said that, if you like to play rock music at relatively loud levels, I'd demo the B&W 704s again, from what I heard, I actually liked the B&W 704's base performance better, it was quick and defined. I'd definitely choose the 704s for a house party. But then again, I think the Totem Hawk are much better overall speakers and are more musical in my opinion.

With your budget, you can go up one more to the forest, they've been listed here used for less than $2000.

If you have any questions on the Totem speakers, I'd strongly suggest you call up Totem Acoustic in Canada and speak to Vince directly. He's extremely helpful and you can always trust an expert opinion from the person who actually designed the speakers!

Good luck,

Seong

P.S. I think the hawk are certainly better sounding speakers than the staffs in every sense.

i would agree with the other posts. the hawks are a better speaker than the sttaf, and the forests are a better speaker than the hawks. the forest speakers have a better bottom end than the hawks but in your room, the hawks should be just fine. another option for you would be to listen to the totem mani 2's. a fantastic speaker. they are a larger monitor type speaker with dual (isobaric) woofers. i traded up from a pair of totem model 1's with a rel strata III sub to the mani 2's in my audio room. my audio room is about the same size as yours and the mani's work out perfectly. i also use a pair of totem arros in my 12 x 13 ft den. as for amplification, totem's need power and more the better. in your size room, a good choice of totem speakers would be: model 1's or rainmaker with a good fast rel or totem sub; or the hawk, forest, or mani 2. i would have my model 1's cranked pretty loud without any strain.

BTW, IMO, totem speakers blow away B&W speakers!

Rock?...realistically, at modest levels, rock'in would really need those speakers to be subwoofer assisted. I know I could easily send those drives into audible distress, compression, distortion, you name it. My suggestion for people wanting to rock with speakers such as these(by the way, the long wall will get you better sound easier likely, wiht less tinkering) is to cross em over with a pre/pro and enlist the help of a sub! Trust me, full range through a smaller passive speakers like those is going to be limited with high dynamic source material, most definitely. letting em play down to about 80hz crossed over yields 100-200% better dynamic range and headroom easily. yes, you might potentially sacrifice ultimite purity with some pre/pro's this way for music, but you more than gain in the dynamics. And, with some pre/pro's you can use "dirrect through-put" for more purity. Or, if your CD/DVD player is just so-so digitally, go digital dirrect and process that way...otherwise, leave your standard 2 channel set up for more delicate chores.
Basically, if you like the Totems(you'll have to listen), and you want to rock, you need to maximize dynamics, and some compromises might be necesary. Thus is the nature of the beast with passive setup's like yours. If you doubt, just pop in "Fluke/Absurd" or most any Metalica cut into your system playing full range (w/o a sub, full range) and listen to your speakers crying for help!..not to mention flat distorted, undynamic sound overall.
As for your concern about buying the Totems, I don't get it. Buy em and sell em if you don't like. I don't understand people's thinking they'll find the ultimate sound with "one shot"!...it don't work that way. Try em in your room/system and you'll know. Otherwise, you'll only assume/guess. It's a hobby..it takes time. Throw it out there and see. If you're unwilling to "make second best chioces" with this stuff, you'll never know anything. Besides, they won't be your last speaker anyway. There's always more latter..trust me.

I have a little Totem experience as a former Totem Forest owner and having dealt with a super Totem dealer and meeting many other Totem speaker owners on Agon, I feel somewhat qualified to offer suggestions here. There definately is significant improvement in performance as you move up the Totem line. I was all set to buy the Hawks until I heard the Forests. While both are good speakers, the Forests simply handle loud music better and will rock. Two separate dealers I trust told me the tweeters on the Hawks simply can't compete with the tweeters on the Forests. You can commonly p/u a pair of Forests under $1900 which (imo) is a great deal. If you really want to eaperience Totem sound, Rbstehno is a big proponent of the Mani 2s which I think is a step up from the Forest in soundstage and bass reproduction. Of course, good quality amplification is critical to yield all you can from these speakers. I'm not telling you the Hawk is not a good choice, only that for a few more $$ the Forests or Manis might be the way to go. Good luck.

Definitely,
If you add a-bit more for used pair you may have Forrests that are substantially better performers of nearly any kind of music...