imo, you are worried about something that you shouldn't. if you have the right electronics with any of the totem speakers you have been auditionng, you don't need to worry about blowing woofers. if you team up a smaller amp to drive these totem speakers to high spl's, yeh, you will blow them. totem speakers, at least the ones i have owned or presently own (model 1, arro, in-wall, mani 2's) need a powerful amp to drive them. for example, i had a pair of large monoblocks driving the model 1's and they would play as loud as i wanted. my mani's need hundreds of watts to sound full and clean. home theater magazine did a test using the arros with the dreamcatcher speakers and they liked what they heard. i hooked up my arros in my ht setup using 2 subs and i could crank them as loud as i wanted in a 16X24x10 room. i am surprised that you would think about the arros after using the hawks or forests. the arros are very nice and are excellent for a small speaker in a smaller room (used mine in a den). but going up the food chain, you do get higher quality sound, or i should say a speaker that produces more of the freq range. imo, the food chain for audio stops at the mani's whereas the winds would be a good choice for a ht setup. i debated for a long time on upgrading my model 1's to the hawks or forest. these 2 speakers are more full range but not as clean sounding as the model 1's in an audio only settting (imo). when i heard the mani's, there was no hesitation, clean and full range.
bottomline, no matter what speakers you end up with, you need to get the right equipment to drive them. if you get totem, don't go cheap on the amp.
good luck
bottomline, no matter what speakers you end up with, you need to get the right equipment to drive them. if you get totem, don't go cheap on the amp.
good luck