Totem Forest or Totem Mani 2


Hi All.

I am considering to upgrade my Totem hawk with these two speakers and would appreciate opinions of those who have had experience with one or both of these speakers.

My Music room is 12 x 20 with hardwood floor and carpet.
My system is :
- Audio Analogue Maestro CD
- Audio Analogue Pucinni SE (as a pre amp)
- Rotel RB-1080
- Totem Hawk

the opinions/advices from Audiogoners would be appreciate

Thanks a lot
Jopie
jopie
the forest speakers are very nice but imo, the mani 2's are much better if you have the right amplification. if you have a smaller size amp, I would lean toward the forest because they are much easier to drive. (15 watts is way too small for the forest. when i talked to totem, they recommended against a 20 watt tube amp i was looking at for my totem arros). i traded up from a pair of totem model 1's in my audio room to the mani 2's with target 4 pillar stands filled with sand (got to be over 100 lbs each filled). i also traded up from the totem arros in my den to the mani 2's with the totem 4 pillar stands. i drive the speakers with fairly large monoblock amps and they have a very nice musical sound to them with deep tight bass, full midrange, and smooth extended highs. (btw, i tried hooking up the mani's in my home theater setup (yamaha rxv1 receiver) and the yamaha didn't have the power to drive them properly. they sounded very smooth but no punch, kind of lifeless in a way. this indicated to me the requirement of power that the mani's require.)
good luck
Thanks for your respons, that helpful.

Finally, I go to Totem Forest because they easy to drive, but Totem Mani 2 is still in my top list.
I will upgrade my preamp/power soon, after that i will buy Totem Mani 2 and bring the forest to my HT System.

Best Regards.
Be careful: The Totem Hawk is pretty hard to beat in the Totem family. You question should be easily answered by YOURSELF if you go to your audio store WITH your Hawks and do a comparison listening. You might even want to bring your amp and/or source. You can only ask so much from other people, but in the end, it will be your ears and brain that will do the enjoying.
i would recommend bringing the hawks into your home so you can listen in your room, using your audio gear, to see how you will like the sound. going to an audio store would not be a good comparison.
good luck!