Let me hazard a guess....
Perhaps you are facing diminishing returns...a good $1000 speaker (Arros) can do a pretty good job when well placed in an appropriate small sized room with unchallenging material like female vocal and acoustic guitar. Under certain conditions the LF cutoff of a smaller speaker gives better balance than a full range one (because LF room modes can get out of hand easily and boominess can cloud your ability to hear the lower midrange).
My experience: I still like my Energy 22's from 1983 (less than $800 new at that time). Do the Energy 22 have huge dynamics, startling mid range clarity and ability to play at all levels (including extremely loud) whilst maintaining balance, low distortion and without sounding compressed and boomy? Can Energy 22's fool me into thinking I am at a live venue with realistic live SPL levels? The answer to both these questions is absolutely NOT. However, do the Energy 22's still sound great and pleasing at moderate levels on most source music ...ABSOLUTELY! Would Energy 22's still be enough for me if I lived in a small appartment with neighbours that I had to respect...ABSOLUTELY!
Your old Arros were a great speaker and still are. If you don't feel the Totem Winds are a huge improvement you may want to check your room modes out (test CD & Rat Shack meter). Or simply just crank it up a bit...that is where a higher $$$ design will shine giving you crystal clear sound even at realistic music levels. Also try something a bit more challenging and get yourself some excitement rather than the ever so pleasant (boring) Krall....like Tower of Power What is Hip (Soul Vaccination Album) or Seal "Crazy" or something from Mahler or dare I say it, try some Angus air guitar kicking circles around the floor... "Back in Black".
Like a Barchetta sports car...if you use it for groceries at 30 MPH the benefits will not be very apparent....let it rip on a challenging winding country road...ahh Sunlight on chrome, The blur of the landscape, Every nerve aware....
Perhaps you are facing diminishing returns...a good $1000 speaker (Arros) can do a pretty good job when well placed in an appropriate small sized room with unchallenging material like female vocal and acoustic guitar. Under certain conditions the LF cutoff of a smaller speaker gives better balance than a full range one (because LF room modes can get out of hand easily and boominess can cloud your ability to hear the lower midrange).
My experience: I still like my Energy 22's from 1983 (less than $800 new at that time). Do the Energy 22 have huge dynamics, startling mid range clarity and ability to play at all levels (including extremely loud) whilst maintaining balance, low distortion and without sounding compressed and boomy? Can Energy 22's fool me into thinking I am at a live venue with realistic live SPL levels? The answer to both these questions is absolutely NOT. However, do the Energy 22's still sound great and pleasing at moderate levels on most source music ...ABSOLUTELY! Would Energy 22's still be enough for me if I lived in a small appartment with neighbours that I had to respect...ABSOLUTELY!
Your old Arros were a great speaker and still are. If you don't feel the Totem Winds are a huge improvement you may want to check your room modes out (test CD & Rat Shack meter). Or simply just crank it up a bit...that is where a higher $$$ design will shine giving you crystal clear sound even at realistic music levels. Also try something a bit more challenging and get yourself some excitement rather than the ever so pleasant (boring) Krall....like Tower of Power What is Hip (Soul Vaccination Album) or Seal "Crazy" or something from Mahler or dare I say it, try some Angus air guitar kicking circles around the floor... "Back in Black".
Like a Barchetta sports car...if you use it for groceries at 30 MPH the benefits will not be very apparent....let it rip on a challenging winding country road...ahh Sunlight on chrome, The blur of the landscape, Every nerve aware....