Totem Forest or Mani-2 signature?

Hello Metro,

Wow, bringing the life back into this thread after two years eh? To take a stab at your question:

Will 80 solid watts of juice be enough to power the Mani-2? YES, provided that you don't plan on playing them in a huge room or cranking things up to concert/like sound pressure levels. NO if you do.

I don't quite agree with that, i have a pair of winds which is just as hard to drive and im using 350 watts per channel amp and i can still tell they could use more power. My Bryston is good but could use more power. The Mani's are just as hard to drive if not harder. Yes it will drive the Mani but will it do it efficiently ? i dont think it will. But if im wrong let me know.

I drove my Mani's with a TAD 60 in triode mode - rated at 30 watts. They sounded wonderful, but were capable of only modest volume. This worked great for acoustic music - Jazz, Chamber, etc. Not a rock and roll set up though.

Maverick,

As Bdgregory said, you can drive the Mani-2's just fine with as little as 30 watts. Whether or not that kinda current is sufficient hinges largely on how loud Metro plans on taking the system, and the kind of experience he is looking to get from it. If he wants to play soft music at fairly modest volumes, than the aforementioned Accuphase should be just fine.

However, if he wants to crank things up a bit and enjoy more of a live / life-like experience, then he will have to put more juice through those Mani-2's. A lot more.

Rumadian, yes it's been a long time but this thread is just too valuable to be left behind :-)

Sorry that I should've been more specific. I plan to drive the Mani-2 with a pure Class A Accuphase power amplifier 50 watts @ 8ohms and 80 watts @ 4ohms (I think Mani-2's are 4 ohms) and just to give other members an idea.

This Amplifier currently drives my Forest and for some reason I feel it is more powerful than the Bel Canto Ref1000 mono blocks. My floor shakes at regular listening level at 9 o'clock but at the same time I do not feel it's loud or noisy.

I'm not sure how to describe my listening room but it's basically a Living room/Great room in a typical house that I would think it's medium size.

I mainly listen to Classical and Jazz musics and so I'd think I don't play the music in an extremely loud volume.

Thanks again for your help Rumadian. You have a bag of knowledge in the Totem line and yes I am looking for an upgrade up the totem pole two years after enjoying the Forest.