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Recommend amp to drive Totem Winds?

I'm looking for recommendations for an amplifier (solid-state, integrated) that would be a good fit to a pair of Totem Wind speakers. I've heard that the Winds can be hard to drive, so I'm a bit concerned about what amps will/won't be up to the task.

The Winds are rated at 4 ohms impedence, 87 dB sensitivity, and 250 W maximum power. In general, is it OK to look for an amp that will produce slightly less than 250 W into 4 ohms? Or should I look for an amp that provides 250 W, or more than 250 W, into 4 ohms?

Brands/models I've looked at include:

Simaudio Moon i-3
Simaudio Moon i-7
Krell KAV 400xi

I'm certainly more than willing to consider others, of course.

Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions/opinions....

Cheers,
Barb
bdpetersen
larryken
537 posts
 
You are looking for a high current design that doubles its power as the impedance drops....speaker mfg rating of max power handling is not that important...the key is the impedance and what level the speaker is stable at..nominal 4 ohms, nominal 6, 8 etc...I contact Totem direct and ask what they recommend..always best to consult the mfg with this kind of question.
Larry
riffer
362 posts
 
I would drop Vince Bruzzese a line and ask him what he recommends.

I think the i-3 may handle the Hawks, but not much more.
driver's avatar
driver
746 posts
 
I heard them at the CES with Ayre V-5xe & they sounded just fine, although I'm not a big fan of metal tweets. Bass was great, btw.
mdhoover
690 posts
 
The Winds also sounded quite nice with one of the larger Classe amps.
jh2os
244 posts
 
Barb, I am powering the Totem Wind with a Krell kav-400xi and it sounds great!

I would love have Totem's own Amber integrated, but as it is no longer available I'd have to wait for one to come up on the used market. The Amber was a joint venture with SimAudio. Sim stuff sounds good with Totem, but I would question if even the i-7 would have the 'uumph' needed to power the winds. I ran out of power with an i-5 on my Forests in a previous system.
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