Totem Arro or Sttaf or Hawk??

I've had the Arros and Forests simultaneously in a prior system.

First and foremost both needed a significant amp grunt (high current and watts) to perform at their max.

However I strongly disagree with the comment that the Forests are easier to drive: quite the opposite in fact.

I had an all Arcam FMJ system that was a bi-amped kit to get the Forests to perform at their best. by contrast, The Arros were not bi amped by comparison, and I second the suggestion that a Simaudio I5 would be a nice match.

The arros performed very well in my small room with a jolida hybrid integrated. Surprising bass for a 4" speaker.
All the other Totem speakers I have had, I would agree about the power demands and have stated this in other forums. I ran my Mani 2's with a 200 watt Classe amp, but they really sounded the best when hooked up to the Mcintosh 1000 watt monoblocks. I was considering getting the Mcintosh 352 amp for a bump in power but after using the 1000 watt mono's, I would have had to go to the 500 or 600 series Mcintosh amps. Totem's are very nice speakers, but I ended up selling all my Totem's and going all Usher which are a little easier to drive plus they have the Diamond tweeter.

I would go arro with a small rel-0 sub. this sub is a 6.5" driver based sub that is sealed and lightening fast to keep up with the speaker. This sub with dreamcatchers (similar to arro but small cabinet) was amazing at bargain price. I drove this combo with a tube amp and others were amazed at how the speakers and sub completely disappeared. I had hawks and didnt like them as much.

For a little more than Hawks, Living Voice Auditoriums, their lowest on the ladder (didn't want to say totem pole), they are a whole new ball game but you need a good quality amp, not high powered as they are 94db efficient.

About three years ago I was ready to spring for a pair of B&W 805 Diamonds, can't accommodate a large pair of speakers in my 13x24' living room, but attended an event at my local audio salon (mainly to learn about computer audio), since Totem was buying the drinks that night, decided to listen in to Vince's presentation...and the Totem Fire Monitors knocked my socks off!

A few Saturday's later I assembled a stack of my favorite CDs and headed to the showroom, on a wet, gloomy day it was empty, so I was able to spend some "quality time" with each speaker driven by the same amp I had at home (at the time an NAD M3 integrated). I was just floored at how natural the Totems sounded, had great "sound stage. had great dynamics, voices and acoustic instruments just sounded fantastic.

So I ordered a pair in black.

Since then I've had the hots to listen to other monitors, trying out a pair of Tannoy's, Sonus Fabers, Wilson's and a few other speakers that all sounded great, but not motivating me to change. I've since upgraded the electronics and spent my free cash on a music server.

Looks like the Totems are here to stay!

If you can swing the extra amount to snare the Fire's I'd recommend them highly.