Totem Speakers on Levinson gear??

For me...Levinson 436 with Mani 2 has been the best setup I've heard to date. I've tried alot of different high end amps including Ayre. This combo brings music listening to an emotional experience. Soundstage and depth are the best I've ever heard. Detail. Air. and awesome low end slam with control.

I've owned the winds, forests and hawks. I've used high powered solid state in seperate form and integrated. If you are not going to try and fill a large room, then the forests are the way to go. The forests are extremely musical, dynamic and coherent. The winds suck alot of power and need a pure top end signal with musical cables...same for the forests except the forests are 8ohms and alot easier to control. I found the krell 400xi was an amazing match for the forests, especially using MIT cables.

i have never heard these components with totem, but i have heard them with other fine speakers with excellent results. they should match up well with the totems. i have used classe and mcintosh components with the different totem speakers i've had for the past 7 years. i currently use all classe components with my mani's in my dedicated room. i did take my mani's to the local mcintosh dealer and hooked them up to the 1000 watt mono's with their new tube preamp, they sounded very very nice. the forests are very nice speakers and easy to drive, the winds are a step up imo. i thought about going the winds route but comparing my mani's to the winds, i'm sticking with the mani's.

Audition the Forrests with Ayre and McIntosh components. Both sounded great with different sonic characteristics. Loved the Ayre components... but I'm Mcintosh guy.

Since you are looking at the 431 and the amps I listen to were far less in power you should have plenty of current as the Forrests dip down to 6.4 ohms. The 431 should drive the Forrests to project a wide soundstage and three-dimensional imaging based on my listening experience. Love the midrange on this speaker.

If you can afford the Winds why is the Forrests even being considered. I would turn my focus to that component auditioning with the 431 (400 wpc @ 4 ohms) and 326. I experienced the Winds with McIntosh and VTL tube amps which were both impressive. But since I tend to favor smaller bookshelf speakers like Mani-2 Signature I passed on the Winds due to several factors mainly physical size and price.

Good luck.
And spin the Yellowjackets on your turntable or CD player.