Totem Arro: Do I have enough power?


System: I have a very basic system.
1. Onkyo TX-DS575x A/V receiver
2. Sony CD

Room: Small NY 1 bedroom. 8' ceilings, hard wood floors, 12' x 14' room.

I just finished school and have been using a pair of Pioneer speakers my dad had from the 1970s. Sorry to make you wince. Thus, I need new speakers. I'm considering the Totem Arro because of the small size of my listening space and the small size of the speaker. My cap is abou $1000. Do I have enough power to drive these speakers? Any other suggestions (besides buy a new system)? Thanks!
sgandhid102
I have a pair of Arro's in my den (almost the same dimensions as your room) and they are driven by an old onkyo tx-sv909pro receiver. The arro's sound very nice in this setup. I also hooked up the arro's in my audio room (in place of my totem model 1's, with classe preamp and cd player, odyssey monoblocks) and they sounded much better. The arro's will sound fine with the onkyo but when you upgrade your receiver and cd player, they speakers will sound even better.
The Totem ARROs will drive easily with 20-30 watts. You can always call Totem and ask.
A small room and I doubt you are going to be "rocking the house", I think you've made a very good choice. I have been personally impressed by the large image that these very small speakers produce. If you do intend on playing loud, then more efficiency might be necessary--but if you were going to play loud you really need bigger speakers anyway to keep from straining the drivers--the arros are not really meant for higher volumes anyway.
If your receiver is capable of driving a 4ohm load I do not
forsee any problems since the room is small. You might want to consider looking into bookself spks.($800+/-) and good stands (Atacama Nexus 6, around $150 delieverd) also. Since your room is small you might want to consider a small bookshelf speaker. JM Lab Chorus 705/KEF Q1 around $325 are superb choices.(Alot more sensitive (91db) and higher impedance than the Totem's 85.5db's.) A good set of speaker wires (Cardas Twinlink) and interconnects and your in business w/lots of change left over to spend on new music!