Compact Tower Opinions

Yup...they are by no means perfect, but they do make "music"!
One other caveat I meant to include in the earlier post...if you want to peel paint with sound volume, enjoy LOUD rock at live concert levels (100db+?), these probably ain’t gonna be the ones. Don’t get me wrong, they can play loudly just fine, but I don’t think they sound that good when pushed much above, say, mid-90s dB as an average listening volume.

@tfats -

Hope you get to do some auditioning first and find something that’s right for your ears, gear and room.

I’ve owned a pair of Totem Forests since 2007. Could have upgraded (e.g., to Forest Signatures or other) in the years since but chose not to. Been very happy with the Forests. For me they are keepers. Excellent imaging and soundstage. Very impressive bass. They work great with a variety of different amps (SS A, A/B, & D as well as a tube integrated) and always seem to step up reflecting improvements elsewhere in the system. They have a long break in time; think a couple hundred hours. Bass will be mostly MIA until then. Attention to room placement pays dividends (nothing unique there). The metal dome tweeter can be a challenge but power conditioning, amp pairing and cabling solve that. The Signatures, if within budget, are reportedly even better performing than the v1 Forests .

FWIW - I also have higher efficiency Silverline Prelude Pluses which pair very nicely with the low wattage Class A First Watt F7. They are a little taller but even slimmer than the Forests.

Good luck to you.