Another voice to agree with the first three posts, especially Atmaspheres. I have heard smaller Totem floorstanders sounding very good but they were in a small room and driven by SimAudio solid-state gear which delivered considerable current.
You didnt do so badly. You chose a speaker just because you liked itnothing wrong with that. If you are set on tubes, maybe you should just go for the highest-power tube amp you can afford and live with it for a while. Depending on the size of your room, you may not be able to fill it with sound. In that case you can listen in the near field, with your chair placed at one point of an equilateral triangle whose other two points are the speakers.
If you get to wondering later what an amp upgrade would do for the Totems, I can say that Ive heard them do very well with Conrad-Johnson tube gear.
BTW, you mention you have read a posts suggesting that one start with speakers and then find an amp for them. My own approach would be different: ideally, I would choose the very best possible source, then listen to it on a boombox or headphones while I saved for the best-value tube amp I could afford. Then I would choose speakers for that amp, since there are a lot of choices around in speakers.
Different strokes, FWIW... and anyway, things dont always work out the way you plan. You could chance on a pair of speakers you loved and have to build backwards :o) . That can work just as well.
You didnt do so badly. You chose a speaker just because you liked itnothing wrong with that. If you are set on tubes, maybe you should just go for the highest-power tube amp you can afford and live with it for a while. Depending on the size of your room, you may not be able to fill it with sound. In that case you can listen in the near field, with your chair placed at one point of an equilateral triangle whose other two points are the speakers.
If you get to wondering later what an amp upgrade would do for the Totems, I can say that Ive heard them do very well with Conrad-Johnson tube gear.
BTW, you mention you have read a posts suggesting that one start with speakers and then find an amp for them. My own approach would be different: ideally, I would choose the very best possible source, then listen to it on a boombox or headphones while I saved for the best-value tube amp I could afford. Then I would choose speakers for that amp, since there are a lot of choices around in speakers.
Different strokes, FWIW... and anyway, things dont always work out the way you plan. You could chance on a pair of speakers you loved and have to build backwards :o) . That can work just as well.