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
good luck