Request advice-need "brighter" speakers than Totem Hawks

 Before you buy any new components, take your speakers back to the dealer and have them checked. Call first.

Further update:
Today I schlepped the Hawks to my friendly neighborhood hi-end dealer, Hermary’s in San Carlos, CA, where they hooked them up to a system comprised of a nice Parasound pre and a Mackintosh 1520 power amp (yum). Source was a recent PS Audio server providing WAV and FLAC files.

Surprise! The speakers sounded fine. No differences in high freq. response between speakers, even switching channels. The Hawks sounded like many of you gentle experts have suggested that they should sound--rather amazing, with no issues on the high end. Even a slight tendency towards brightness without harshness--so cool, to hear them as they are supposed to sound. That’s the good news. The bad news is my amp, pre-amp, or CDP are now suspect. I am thinking I may take the power amp in for work/diagnosis first, and would like the advice of you, the cognoscenti, on this matter. Thank you in advance for any pearls of wisdom you may wish to offer.
B

Try this quick experiment. Sit and listen with a pair of hard bound books. Remember those? :) Otherwise LP covers will work. Lift them up about a foot from your head to either side, so that they form a 45 degree angleto your ears and the speakers.

Does this fix your problem? If so your room may be too well damped, especially to the sides and behind your listening location.

Other cheap fixes include replacing any interconnect with plain-jane cheap RCA cables.

One thing I wonder about is the impedance of the speakers. I can't find a curve to answer but there's an interesting discussion here:

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/89-speakers/928498-totem-acoustic-owner-s-thread-16.html

It is possible that there's something in the crossover design that makes them difficult to drive. Not sure why, should be a very straightforward design unless there was a lot of EQ added. The fix for this type of issue is a beefier amp.

Best,


Erik

Try some Paradigm Signature's with beryllium tweeters. 

Hey Erik (et al): 
Some updates. First for Erik, Hawks have 6 ohm impedance, FWIW. I have not encountered an amp that had trouble pushing a lot of sound through them, though SQ is another issue. 

Quickie recap: In our last episode, I took the Hawks to Hermary's (local dealer) and tested them on a McIntosh Power Amp/Paradign Pre setup. Source was a high-end Audio server. Sounded great. I've now swapped out the Sim Audio Moon P-5/W-5 for my Creek 100a, and the sound is better, but ONLY because (IMHO) the Creek has tone controls, with which I have been pushing the treble way up (setting of 6-9/10). But it sounds good. Current cables are Audience AU24SE (ICs) and Audio Art SC-5SE(R) on speakers. I tried some anti-cables, and retain them as the bridging conductors between speaker posts (well-designed design for that). 

Insights/Action/Questions:
(1) My hearing is worse than I thought. Specifically, owing to the geometry of my setup, for near field listening (including a process per Erik's suggestion above) I was using my left ear on the right-speaker and right ear of the left-speaker. Oops. I have major high frequency hearing loss in my right ear (now that I stop to seriously listen for that). I was diagnosing the left speaker incorrectly. I switched to listening near-field with only my left ear, and things improved some. Not sure what action item this portends, except I am toying with getting a "Hear One" device for use in-ear. I'm mostly interested in that for use as an inexpensive hearing assist-device (in my classes), so I'm far from counting on this to make a difference in music listening. 

(2) The Moon P-5/W-5, while truly a pleasure to operate, and possessed of stunning aesthetics (IMHO), has a couple issues--notably (in my specific case) no tone controls, which I apparently need. Also, from an audiophile perspective, the bass (my low- and mid- freq, hearing is fine) was "too extended" in the Moon + Hawks setup. The Moon pre/amp put out a bit more than the hawks could readily resolve--seriously low frequencies--well beyond the (admittedly brilliant) ability of the Hawks smallish drivers. This resulted in slightly "loose, boomy" bass at times, depending on the recording. The Creek amp, solved this issue (speculation: by simply not going there as powerfully on the lowest frequencies). The result: audibly tighter bass. Still plenty of low-low frequencies, too. 

(3) The system I heard at Hermary's listening space was driven by an expensive (>$5k, I suspect) server. I got the brand wrong--not PS Audio, so that remains a mystery for now--sorry about that. The point: the source was top-notch, far above the Marantz SA 8005SACD I'm using. Even with a modded Eastern Electric DAC (discrete Op Amps in for ICs, pulled out tube) the Marantz is simply not as good as that server pushing out FLACs and WAVs. Having the Parasound pre and the McIntosh Amp in the loop could not hurt either. I am wondering now about the quality of my source material (CDs) and the Marantz SACD 8005. 

(4) Actions Items (planned and prospective):
-I'll take the Moon W-5 (power amp) in for service--I have a couple minor issues that need attention (loose speaker binding post, intermittent power LED). I'll have the service guy go over the whole unit. Everyone I talked to, however, told me power amp problems are generally much more "catastrophic" by nature--subtler issues like "muted highs" are not on people's radar for this type of gear. 

-My wife (whom I adore) has said I can have a belated Xmas gift of a component of my choice. If I sell the Moon Pre- and Power-amps, I'll have plenty of $ to get something that hopefully meets my needs better. Having spent an inordinate amount of time validating the speakers, I wonder where I might turn next. Open to constructive suggestions. Let's keep single component cost at $5500 or less, please. Less is more ;-).

-Having, in the course of this exploration, done a whole bunch of cable-swapping (anti-cable/Audience/Audio Art/Better cable/vintage Monster M-Sigma 2000/others) I now firmly believe that once one has decent quality cable in the system, differences are absolutely minimal. My not so subtle way of saying I am done exploring cables for now. I'm thinking (from the visit to the dealer) of looking at a used McIntosh power or integrated amp. Other ideas (including replacing the CDP) are welcome. I'm quite open to new or used top-quality gear--there's a lot of McIntosh available out there--it's confusing, actually. Thank you all for your thoughts. 
-B