Suggestions short 3' tall floorstander?

given your existing Totem config, why not go with Forests, and if they are too tall Hawks. You can move the Mite's to the rear. Another option is Mani-2's. I have a pair of Sttafs, and Mani-2's. Wouldn't recommend the sttafs for HT for the same reason you experienced with the arros. I would recommend the Mani-2's though - provided you have the power to drive them. Mine are 40" on 24" stands.

Could just spend less(gasp!) and buy a pr of Rega RS-3 which is all a reasonable person needs.

Of course reasonable and audiophile are mutually exclusive.

The Hawk is a logical choice, but I am interested in seeing what other options are out there. The Mite-Ts are way too big for the rear in my current setup anyway (the Mite-T is the size of two Mites stacked on top of each other)

You have other choices.
1) Get an acoustically transparent screen—less costly than new speakers.
2) Reposition the speakers for 2-channel listening—costs nothing.

If impact and dynamics are high on your list of priorities, imo high quality prosound drivers are a viable way to get there. Tyler Acoustics and Pi Speakers both have models that fall within your height and price range. Yours truly has done some semi-custom work in that area as well.

You didn't mention footprint size, so I presume you're okay with a larger footprint than what you've been using. As we go up in efficiency (and dynamics), we have to increase the box size if we want to still have decent low end.

Duke
dealer/manufacturer