Totem Hawks vs. Forest

Hi Jkw1,

Yes I've heard many Totem Acoustic's loudspeakers when I used to live in Singapore. I auditioned the Hawk, Forest and the Mani-2 sig. all in one sitting, so I have a pretty good idea of what they sound like.

I personally decided on the Hawk after four auditions. The Hawk and the Forest sound very similar to each other and the main reason for choosing the Hawk was that I felt it sounded more... intimate to my ears. These babies really pulled me in and drowned me in music. They are also cheaper and smaller (perfect for my tiny bedroom).

Please look at my system for my equipment info.

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?vopin&1103273936&openmine&zzSpacekadet&4&5#Spacekadet

For your room however, I'd recommend the Forest. The Forest can pretty much do everything the Hawk can and they will play quite a bit louder. I'm not familiar with your components, but the Totem speakers need a lot of power to really sing, I'd recommend at least a quality 150wpc amplifier w/ ability to deliver high current. The dealer was using all Sim Audio equipment w/ a solid state power amplifier, which was a wonderful combination with the Totem loudspeakers.

I'm not sure exactly what drivers the Forest use, but I don't think they've changed the design since its introduction. The dealer told me the Hawk was newer design compared to the Forest.

Hope this helped. Good luck,

ive heard both extensively...the forrest is better all around, but depending on your needs ie. if your willing to give up the lowest octaves you find the model 1 to the the best choice, mid-range and up it at least as magical if not more so than the above mentioned speakers, and would be perfect in a small room...also consider power requirements...the forests are very easy to drive in a small room 20-30 watts would be enough, the model 1 and hawks need considerable more 100 watts or so to work well.

Note that the Forest is Totem's most efficient speaker. I am VERY happy with 15 to 20 watt tube mono amps.