Do I have enough power?


I have a Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum with KT120 tubes, and I'm curious if this amp will provide enough power for a pair of Totem Mani-2 speakers. If anyone has any experience with these, I'd love to hear your opinion of this pairing. Thanks.
rossbernstein
I drive my Mani-2's with SS mono block amps rated at 400 w@4ohms, which is the right power for all listening. I previously owned a TAD 60 tube amp, and for fun I set it up with the Manis and had it running in triode mode - 30 watts/ch. It sounded wonderful (and I mean wonderful!) for acoustic and some jazz music (eg trio) - but would not drive them for anything dynamic like rock where you want more volume - even though it did sound good at lower volume. In Ultralinear mode (60 watts) it was a little better on dynamics, but that amp sounded so much better in triode. I saw somewhere that your Rogue is rated at 90 watts using (KT90 tubes)? This may be enough, but if you like hard driving rock or jazz fusion it may still leave you wanting.
I think Bdgregory is right, the answer is....maybe. I was driving my Mani-2's with a Cary CAD-120S Mkii which was putting out a rated 120 per into 8ohms and it sounded wonderful, perhaps a little "loose" in the low end for the bass heavy Mani's, but still very, very good. I wish there was a yes or no answer here, but depending on your listening tastes and room the lower output of the Rogue may or may not do it for you. If you are not able to audition the Cronus, you might consider finding a used unit which can, if it doesn't send you, be flipped costing you pretty much only freight. I'm now running mine with Rouge M-180's and I'm nothing but smiles. The Mani's will gladly and hungrily take as much power as you can give them, but I find they very much return the favor.
Actually, I already have the Cronus Magnum and I am contemplating getting a pair of the Mani-2's. It's good to hear how much you guys like the Mani-2's in general though, because I'm still not completely sold on them (I'm considering the Totem Hawks as well, and other speakers). I have the Rainmakers now, and the Hawks sounded very nice to me. I'm mainly looking at floorstanders, but I assumed that the Mani-2 might have a very full sound despite being a bookshelf speaker.

I also have an NAD C375BEE integrated amp, rated at 2 X 150W into both 4 and 8 ohms. I thought my Rogue Audio amp was much better, but would the NAD's higher power rating make it a better match for the Mani-2's?
I doubt you will like the NAD (though I've never heard it) better than the Rogue with Mani's. I don't think 150W of SS power is enough to make that much difference.
I think you will just need to try yourself. I found that I preferred my Butler 2250 (hybrid 250W amp) into my power hungry SP Tech Minis, but the Rogue Stereo 90 into my Von Schweikert VR-4s. Once you get past basic amp-speaker matching considerations, synergy becomes a bit more mysterious. The SP Minis in my small space were in no way straining the Rogue, but the Butler did sound better. It may have been the extra power or something else.