SS apm for Totem Mani -2

Mani 2 is also a challenging speaker to drive because it dips below 4 Ohms. Even a Bryston 3BST will be challenged; I auditioned these with my 4BST years ago and that amp couldn't light them up as well as a Mark Levinson 334 or a cj MF80.

That's gonna be a challenge at that price range but others more knowledgable than me may have suggestions in your price range.

I have owned Mani-2's for many years and before I paid thousands to buy a super amp, I used a Sunfire amp. I connected the current source to the tweeters and the voltage source to the woofer. Very smooth sounding with iron fist bass. You can be this amp for less than $1000.00 used.

I used a Linn Klout with my Totem Mani-2 for a few years and was very happy with the results. The key is the current of the amp, oversized toroidal transformer and 40,ooo uf of capacitance per channel. The Klout can be had second hand for about $1,200.00 . I would go for the models with the female banana plugs(serial number <5000), this models have the standard female bananas. I used Kimber 8-TC with the Nordost Z-Plugs on both ends of the cable.

Hope this helps. Hector

i use a pair of odyssey monoblocks with my mani 2's along with classe preamp and cd player. I have the upgraded monblocks (120,000 caps) and klaus from odyssey is making the extreme version of the monoblocks, which i have heard are also very good. with the monoblocks, i get a full range sound even at lower volumes, which is tough to do with a 85db sensitive speaker. i also made a change to shotgun biwiring using 2 sets of Discovery copper cable which made a big difference over a much thinner silver wire. right or wrong, I wanted less resistance getting the power to the speaker.
good luck

The amp I would want to have with a pair of Mani-2's would be the SimAudio Moon W-5.

SimAudio's W-5 page

I used a Pass labs Aleph 5 with great success. Also used a pair of Cary CAD-300B monoblocks with superb moderate level success

I heard them recently off very good Mac SS amplification. Very nice, detailed musical with nice soundstage and imaging, but a tad edgy sounding for my tastes, which surprised me a bit with the mac amp.

I'd like to hear them running off a Wyred st-1000 which might come in used these days towards the top of the target price range. Other Class D icePowers as well as long as well matched to pre-amp.

I am listening to a Bedini 25/25 Phase two right now. That's right, a 25 watt/channel true class A amp that sings. It did likewise with my Acoustat 2+2s as well. This amp was designed to drive a pair of Quads per channel. Very high current little amp. Any of the 800 Series amps will do well with these speakers. For class A/B solid state, the Perreaux PMF5550/5570/5150 amps will do the job(on any speaker). The PMF3400 is another good match. Good luck finding any of these amps. I suspect the McCormack amps will also work. The Mani 2s are incredible for their size.  Have Fun...