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Totem Forest and Budget Amplifiers

I have a wonderful set of Totem Forest Speakers and I need advice on a budget friendly integrated amp (less than 1K) to carry me over a year or two until I can afford to upgrade. I've been through two amps so far, a Rotel 1080 which was a little too bright for me and a Jolida 1501 which to me was too forward and less appealing than the Rotel. I listen at pretty low "bedroom" levels so I may be able to get by with a lower powered all tube setup such as the Jolida 302/502 or Primaluna. Not opposed to SS but was thinking all tubes as a change. I listen to mainly vocalist and piano

Thanks in advance for the advice.
tigermark89
hieule5
115 posts
 
Totem Forest is a floorstander and its efficiency of 87db is rather low for any floorstander its size. You should check with Vista Audio to see if their tube amp can drive your Forest at your comfort listening level.
transnova's avatar
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transnova
350 posts
 
I've heard the Totems sound very nice with affordable tube integrated amps (from JAS,Raysonic,and Soundquest)as well.
chatta
314 posts
 
Totem's are not very good speakers, but you can try hooking them with the Krell KAV400i integrated amp.
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knownothing
1,637 posts
 
The tube amps listed are good choices - PrimaLuna would have to be used, but ProLogue 1 would be very nice match.

Solid state my choices would be in this order:

-Naim Nait 5 - used (very good match with Totem)

-Music Hall's new larger integrated amp (good match with Totem)

-Cambridge Audio 840A v2 - used (very good amp, must be "v2")

-NAD C-372 - used (very good amp)

-Musical Fidelity A3.5 - (very good amp)

In my book, these would all kick the Rotel's a$$ paired with the Forests.
hieule5
115 posts
 
Agreed with Mr. Knownothing.
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