Totem Shaman vs Wind

I spoke with Vince on the phone a few weeks ago regarding upgrading my Hawks, and he suggested that the Mani-2 was a very finicky speaker but when it was setup correctly and driven with the exact cables and components it would rival speakers costing four times as much. He even admitted that Totem's own cables weren't nearly good enough to drive them properly!

Perhaps you should call Totem directly and discuss this with them? I've always found them to be very open and willing to talk to their customers.

I didn't ask him too much about a list, rather specifically about my current Audio Research VS110 (100wpc) and the VT220 (200w monoblocs) that I'm thinking of upgrading to. He said that although the VS110 is around the minimum power that he would like to see in front of a Mani-2, it would still work nicely without needing to upgrade to the more powerful mono amps.

More importantly (to my decision, that is) he mentioned that he'd like to see an ultra-high performance cable like those from Harmonic Research ($3k+) with the Mani-2 to get their full potential out.

I'm now trying to decide between a finicky speaker like the Mani-2 and the more easily set up Wind. After years of putting up with the extreme finicky-ness of a Naim system, I'm really leaning towards the simpler route. You may have more patience than me :)

Ulfdantes, Vince seemed to think that a properly set up Mani-2 would outperform the Wind. He didn't comment on the Mani-2 vs. Shaman as I told him the WAF ruled out the larger model for me immediately.