Totem Arro Vs. Sttaf

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.

I had a pair of Sttafs and think it's hard to go wrong with them. I drove them with several amps including a 30 w/c vintage Fisher tube integrated. They do have reaonable low end, and are very easy to place (though they excell is you can bring them out into the room). If at some point (as I did) you want to get deep bass, it's really easy to integrate them with a subwoofer. I upgraded to Mani-2's, and kept them for 6 months, but decide it wasn't right for them to sit around idle most of the time so I sold them.

Don't sweat the decision and get stalled in the process. If you're uncertain, buy a used pair of Arros and try them in your home. You're only going to know if you like them by hearing them for yourself. If you buy them used and they don't suit you, then you can resell them and by some Sttafs.

An alternative to the Arro is the Silverline Prelude. They go a bit deeper (35 Hz), and are a bit easier to drive (91dB, 8 ohms). About the same size. About the same price. They also sound really outstanding.