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Replacing Forests???

OK, I am looking for some friendly advice. After going through 3 pairs of Forests in a 6 month period, my dealer is allowing me to trade them back in for full value towards another speaker set-up. I am a HUGE fan of the Totem sound, and have never had problems with Totem before these Forests.

I have owned the Tabus and Arros with great results. Moving to a larger space forced me to move away from the Arros and up the Totem line. I had longed for the Forests for a long time, but the problems I've had with these in the short history of owning them has me throwing in the towel with them!

This is a 2-channel music/HT set-up powered by a Simaudio i-5. I am thinking of going with one of the following 2 options:

Totem Sttaf with 2 Dreamcatcher subwoofers

(or)

Totem Hawks

Although I think I am more partial to the Sttaf sound, as I have never been 'wowed' with the Hawks on the gear I've listened to them on (Naim/NAD - both bad; Ayre - pretty decent, small hotel room set-up), I would love to hear people's opinions.

Any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
jh2os
upstateaudio
249 posts
 
I blew my woofers after the break in period. I was playing the speakers loud before the 150 hours were up probably at around 100 hours. The 2nd set I was considerably more careful. I hooked up my Tivoli radio (rec out)into my preamp and ran it straight for 1 week on NPR at background volumes(mostly talk with some classical, jazz)before I played any serious analog or CD on it. Have not had a problem since ( I am also not playing as loud- loud is now 85-90 dBC to me rather than 90-95).
jh2os OP
244 posts
 
Thanks Upstateaudio, I usually don't listen much louder than 90db anyway - more in the 80db range.

Beheme, I think the only issue I have with adding a sub is that I would prefer just the Hawks for music - sans sub. Is there something I am missing that would allow me to use the sub only for movies and not for music? Can the sub be hooker up directly to the DVD player???
walkman
50 posts
 
Beheme, I also have that Mirage LF100 sub. I use it as part of my home theater...I basically have two systems, one for audio (sim I-5/Nova + pending Hawks) and video (outlaw 1050 receiver and mirage surround system with LF100 sub). Lots of coincidences in this thread about similarly owned equipment. I wonder if there's a way to have it connected to both my Outlaw 1050 receiver for home theater usage and to my Sim I-5 which has a home theater pass-thru for 2-channel music purposes. Must be...

Upstateaudio: Good information to know...thx.

Jh2os: Curious but good the indicator light has not gone on for you anymore. I wonder what was causing it in the first place, but if it has not/does not replicate, then I guess at this point, it does not really matter.
jh2os OP
244 posts
 
Walkman, yes it is good that I haven't seen the indicator light in awhile. I am leary to crank the volume while using the Sony DVD to see if I can make it reoccur though, hence keeping it under '31'.
walkman
50 posts
 
So, Jh2os, what do you think of the Hawks so far? Since our set-up's will be identical, I am most curious to hear your impressions. [My room is 27x14, but the listening area is really only 14x14.]

thx, walkman
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