Replacing Forests???

I've owned a pair of trouble free Forest for about three years now and love them. I did however have some trouble with the pair of Totem Signature One's I had previous to the Forest. I'm interested in hearing in more detail what kind of trouble you experienced and Totem's response to your issues.

I don't have any suggestions, but have some questions (!). What happened to your Forests that you had to replace them 3 times in six months? That seems like a lot. Also, how well did your I-5 drive the Forests (I have an I-5 and am considering Totem shopping, too). Finally, what did you prefer about the Sttafs relative to the Hawks in your prior demo's. thx, walkman

Jsbail/Walkman - Well, with my first pair of Forests, one of the wire coils inside of the speaker had broken free in shipping. While setting them up, I heard something 'clunking' around inside the cabinet. I took the binding post cover off and saw that the wire coil had broken free of the tie wraps that had been securing it. I was nervous that that coil may have bashed something else inside the speaker, so I never played them and easily exchanged them for another pair.

Then about a month or two later, while listening my left speaker started making a scratching noise on low bass notes. Upon further inspection it seemed as if the woofer was blown. I sent this back to have the woofer replaced - again easy to work with, just time without a speaker.

Speaker came back, sounded good. Now 3 weeks later, and it is now the right speaker in my system and that same scrathy noise is occuring, exactly as before. So, I am just tired of having to worry about it and going another direction.

Totem and my dealer have been great, just having this many things go wrong in such a short span of time has me soured on these speakers. I have previously owned Tabus and Arros for extended periods of time with no issues whatsoever!

Walkman - The Hawks never pulled me into the music that way other Totem speakers have - I'm not sure if it's the speaker, or just the systems synergy that I have heard them on???

Dwhitt - I am a fan of that Totem sound. I could go with another line. They also carry Krell speakers, but could acquire other lines for me as well. I have liked the SOnus Faber Grand Piano home in the past. And I just recently heard the Dali MS5 for the first time and loved it, but that is in a whole other price class!!! Any suggestions for other lines I should consider? I am a big fan of Totem and have always found them to 'stand out' in their respective price class.

Milpai/Rbstehno - I prefer a floor standing speaker to a monitor, but maybe I should investigate those suggestions as well???

Maybe I need to give the Hawks another shot???

Fascinating, but helluva story. Sorry for the legwork you had to do, it must have been quite annoying -- I can see why you'd not want to bother with the Forests, let alone any other speaker from the company, but you seem to be pretty mellow about it, and that's pretty gentlemanly of you. Good luck in your next speaker quest...

- walkman

I say if you are not going to move up from the Forest you should look into the Sonus Faber lineup.