Totem Arro Vs. Sttaf

I listened to Arro, Sttaf, Hawk and Forest three years ago and bought the Hawks. Having said that I am re-thinking my decision although that is based primarily upon room size/room dynamics and not the qualities of the speaker.

Here is my summary - this is only my experience at a particular dealer and in my room at home and is not meant to be anything more than that:

The Arros are remarkable for their size - in a small room with decent acoustics they are shockingly good. Clean, detailed, airy, surprising bass - wonderful really. Can't imagine many similarly priced "bookshelf speakers" being this good. Maybe the best sounding of the lot to my ears but only in a small space. Can be located close to back wall and that maybe even helps this speaker in some cases.

The Sttafs and Hawks I found to be fairly similar despite using different drivers. Both very musical and by that I guess I mean balanced and easy to listen to. Hawks slightly better in the bass and a little brighter in the treble. Again, both these speakers shine in smaller environments - the Hawks in my large room have useable bass to just under 40 Hz and I have added subs as a result because I miss the lower rumblings when they are not there as it turns out. Also don't think the Arro, Sttaf or Hawk are very "fussy" speakers - at the dealer I placed them close to walls, away from walls, bi-wire, single-wire, expensive wires, cheap wires and could tell little if any difference in any case and I suspect that all three models would sound superb in the right environment with a nice tube amp - indeed the TAS reviewer of the Hawk claimed he "drove them with ease" with a 32 watt tube amp. My Hawks are being driven by a 150 watt Classe. All three models I think benefit from some lead shot in the base.

The Forests clearly had more dynamic range but seemed a little drier to me - could have been lack of break-in at the dealer or an electronics mismatch - not sure - maybe they are just more analytical or true to the source. Whatever the reason they didn't capture me to the point where I was willing to write the check for them.

Hope this long-winded message helps.

Upgraded to the Sttaf's from my Arros....I still miss my Arros. It's not buyer remorse, but I have to say Sttaf & Arros have different strengths. Choose one or the other depending on what you are looking for and your room size.

Arros Pros: better soundstaging, superior imaging, tighter bass, outstanding midrange, tonally more accurate than Sttafs just lacks the deepest bass & high output levels.

Sttafs Pros: easier to drive, more detail in music, better highs and lows, bass good enough to not use a sub. Midrange is good, but Arros are better. comfortable with all types of music and a/v applications.

Both speakers driven with quality ss & tube amps. For a smaller room, I'd give the nod to the Arros for an "all rounder", fuller sound, go with the Sttafs.

What is the rest of your equipment consist of? That will also affect your decision.

I'd go for Sttafs. A much better all-round speaker IMO. The Arros are very cute and great fun but I find the bass very one note and not very well intergrated with the mid. Afterall the port is doing pretty much all the LF. They're still great though. I also thought the tweeter is very good (if slightly rolled off) on the Sttafs when I heard them recently.

But I'd go for a used pair of Model Ones over either ; )

Thanks, all.

The rest of my equipment is Bryston B60 (60W), Arcam CD 92, Rega Planar3/Dynavector DV-10X5. My curent listening room is ~13'W X 21'D X 9'H. I will definitely be moving within a year, so I am not tied to trying to match everything exactly to my current room.

My current speakers are Signet SL 280ex floorstanders, which until adding all of the above components, were the best part of my system the past 7 years. They have a nice sound overall, but a bit harsh (ex. vocals' "s"'s are grating at times), a lack of detail (as a sax player, for instance, love to hear that detailed reed reverberations and the clicking of these sax keys), and no where near the imaging I appreciate from B&W and Epos bookshelfs I've heard. While I realize moniters might be best for me, but my wife aethetically finds floorstanders more pleasing, and I am somewhat used to the oomph the Signets afford in rock and large orchesral works.

So in my online research, the arros seemed to be a good match as far as floorstanders that image like monitors.

What's leading me to consider the Sttaf's are the size of my room, the potential of added oomph/moving air, and the opinions that I've read that Arros are more finicky with power ... but don't want to lose too much of the imaging capabilites of the Arros.

Am open to other speaker suggestions (under $1,500 new/$1,000 used)- the Totems just seem to fit the bill from what I see(read), short of being able to compare speakers in the same room.