Replacing Forests???

RBstehno, what amps are you using to drive your respective Totems right now?

in my audio room using the mani's, i currently own the dk design mkII amp. i used to own the classe 47.5 preamp with odyssey monoblocks. right now, i am playing around with a classe 47.5 preamp with a classe ca-201 amp that is loaned to me while my friend is on vacation. for now, i will be keeping the dk unit in my audio room. in my den, i sold the arros to a friend and went with totem inwalls. i am switching between/playing around with my onkyo tx-sv909pro receiver and a jolida integrated tube amp with the inwalls. jolida is smoother and more musical but low on power whereas the onkyo is more solid state sounding and has power.
when i had my model 1's before moving up to the mani's, I used the classe/odyssey setup above for a while. before that, i owned a macintosh ma-6500 integrated, and the classe preamp with a macintosh mc-202 amp. both the 6500 and mc-202 amps did not have the necessary power to drive the model 1's compared to a macintosh mc-352 that i borrowed from my local dealer. i did have the luxury of playing with the mc-352 amp/classe preamp combo with the mani's and i liked it very much. a year ago, i wanted to play with tube gear because i have always like the sound of tubes. but i needed an amp with a lot of power for the mani's and i didn't want to spend $$$$$.$$ for a big tube amp, so i tried the dk unit and liked it. in the future, i will be trying a combination of a tube preamp (cary, mac, prima luna, ????) with the macintosh mc-352 or the newer macintosh mc-402 or possibly the ma-6900 integrated with the mani's.
also, for a while, i purchased a 2nd pair of mani's for my front channels in my ht setup. i was using my yamaha rx-v1 receiver to power them. not a good match. sounded flat, lifeless, and dull. yamaha claims 140 watts per side but the mani's sucked all of the power out of the amp and i ended up selling the 2nd pair of mani's. good luck

Thanks for the info Rbstehno.

Beheme, do you recommend the Avalons over anything from Audio Physic? I know you have been please with those in the past as well - is the Avalon offering another step up???

Avalon's soundstage is something very special and if you liked the Arros, chances are you will love how they image: very deep and wide, literally disappearing. One small constraint: to really benefit from Avalons, one should have the freedom to place them way into the room. As far as the offering, budget will drive the models available to you. Price-wise, AP offers more choice between $2000 and $7000 than Avalon and they sound different. Avalon would be more "neutral" but at the same price point, AP will give you more bass (but not better bass). Between AP Yaras and Avalon Studio Pros or Symbol, the Avalon speakers offer more transparency...yet Yaras are no loser either! Both are great makes but again, Arros sound can be found and improved in Avalon more than AP. On the other hand, AP only needs 30W so the tube amp will be easier and cheaper to find.