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 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!

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.