Totem hawks good for low volume listening?

I owned the Hawks for a number of years and think they're a very special speaker--particularly at their price point. That being said, you really need to run them with some good solid state power in order to fully unlock their range, imaging and detail. I variously paired them with McCormack, Simaudio, and Odyssey amps in the 125-175 wpc range and got great results. A quality tube pre also goes a long way to making them sound their best IMHO.

I've personally had ARROS and FORESTS. In either case they need hi-current and high wattage amps to drive them: TOTEMS are all power hungry. From my experiences I had to bi-amp them to perform best.

TO YOUR POINT: No, I do not think that TOTEMS excel at low volume listening. Rather they excel when "let loose".
Because I listen to a lot of classical and female vocals, low level listeng nirvana was also my Holy Grail.

Yup... I finally found my low level listening Holy Grail, but only after I capitulated, admitted this was not going to work to my satisfaction, sold off the Totems, and sold the all the matched hardware; and replaced them all with REGA R9 speakers driven by REGA OSIRIS integrated amp / REGA ISIS valve cdp...sweet!

Good luck!

Would a Mcintosh Power amp mate well. How about Musical Fidelity M6prx?

Thanks.

Eslaudio: Just curious. What speakers did you replace the hawks with?

I have the Hawks. I do most listening at low volume, I
think they sound great at low volume. I think they need
alot of power though, my Plinius 9100 matches real well
with them. Just a little more volume does make them sound
a little better though. I would be more concerned at high
volume, with the small woofer I can't really push them. I
also have Polk LSi15s, they can handle a beating, but can't
match the natural sound of the great Revelator paper woofer.
The 9100 does 120 per into 8 ohms. My room is a little bigger than yours.

I completely agree with Akg_ca that Totems need hi-current, high wattage amps to drive them effectively. I haven't heard Mcintosh or Musical Fidelity with Totems so I can't comment on how well they'd work. I sold the Hawks b/c I decided to go with a 300b SET amp and the Hawks were nowhere near sensitive enough. I moved to Tekton Lores and now own the Lore-S which have taken away the urge to change/upgrade speakers...at least for awhile until I decide to go back to solid state ;o) Best of luck in your decision!

Do speakers with higher sensitivity ratings generally excel at lower volumes vs. speakers with lower sensitivity? Is that the spec I should be looking at? Thanks for all the suggestions.

There have been quite a few threads on equipment for low volume listening--I would recommend searching through them. In my experience, the quality of the amplification matters as much as the speakers for good low volume sound. That being said, a simple crossover and full range drivers tend to let more information through at low levels. You may also want to go for a headphone system for your low volume listening, which will probably sound the best for relatively less cost.