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Recommend amp to drive Totem Winds?

I'm looking for recommendations for an amplifier (solid-state, integrated) that would be a good fit to a pair of Totem Wind speakers. I've heard that the Winds can be hard to drive, so I'm a bit concerned about what amps will/won't be up to the task.

The Winds are rated at 4 ohms impedence, 87 dB sensitivity, and 250 W maximum power. In general, is it OK to look for an amp that will produce slightly less than 250 W into 4 ohms? Or should I look for an amp that provides 250 W, or more than 250 W, into 4 ohms?

Brands/models I've looked at include:

Simaudio Moon i-3
Simaudio Moon i-7
Krell KAV 400xi

I'm certainly more than willing to consider others, of course.

Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions/opinions....

Cheers,
Barb
bdpetersen
riffer
362 posts
 
I would drop Vince Bruzzese a line and ask him what he recommends.

I think the i-3 may handle the Hawks, but not much more.
driver's avatar
driver
750 posts
 
I heard them at the CES with Ayre V-5xe & they sounded just fine, although I'm not a big fan of metal tweets. Bass was great, btw.
mdhoover
695 posts
 
The Winds also sounded quite nice with one of the larger Classe amps.
jh2os
244 posts
 
Barb, I am powering the Totem Wind with a Krell kav-400xi and it sounds great!

I would love have Totem's own Amber integrated, but as it is no longer available I'd have to wait for one to come up on the used market. The Amber was a joint venture with SimAudio. Sim stuff sounds good with Totem, but I would question if even the i-7 would have the 'uumph' needed to power the winds. I ran out of power with an i-5 on my Forests in a previous system.
gungun29
1 posts
 
Hi,

I upgraded from the forest to the winds. But I feel that the forests were more three dimentional, transparent, lively and had a tighter bass. So, I purchased the forests again and now I have both. I have decided to keep the forests and sell the winds. Any comments?
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