Totem Rainmaker vs Arro ?

[Pezerinno]

I'm a big fan of Totem speakers and am thinking about purchasing either of the above - both are around the same price once you've added in stands for the rainmakers.

Firstly would either of these speakers be out of place in a small room - 11 x 13ft?

Secondly what are peoples opinions on these two speakers? Is one better than the other or is it just down to personal taste? I will of course demo before I buy anything - just mulling over some ideas (always a bad sign I find )

Also while I'm here is there a particular brand of amplification that works well with Totem speakers? Or to put it another way - a particular brand that doesn't work well?

[Mentally]

I recommend demoing both at your home if possible. The Arro is a small floorstander so it might fit your room. The Rainmakers will fit your room very well because they are bookshelves.
Anyway, before you buy do not forget to match the speakers with your amp.

[337GUS]

Try Rega amps, they are often recommended with Totem and Totem used Rega in a dem at a hifi show I was at a year or 2 back, very nice they sounded.

Gus

[Pezerinno]

I'm going to demo Rega Cursa/Maia amp with totem Arros (as well as other setups) and see what I think. Thanks.

[Ian J]

We listened to the Totem Rainmakers at Bristol 2004 and thought that they were the stars of the show (at sensible prices). We heard different Totem speakers at last years show and they didn't sound as good but unfortunately there were so many people and so much noise in the Totem room this year that we couldn't hear anything properly.

I'm sure that there's a moral in there somewhere

[surrey lad]

Totems normally like big high current amps. I think you'll find that Totems and Rega are distributed by the same company, this is likely to be the real reason they were paired together at the show.

I've being using Mani 2's for yrs, I've had them singing along nicely using a Plinius SA250, Classé CA201 and now I use a Sunfire Sig amp.

[Peter Baker]

Nice kit, Surrey lad. I aslo really like Totems. Frm memory, the Mani-II are the real killer standmounts which undoubtedly need loads of driving. They produce prodigious bass from a small box. I'm not dure that others in the range are quite as power hungry

[surrey lad]

Thanks Peter, yes the mani 2s have awesome but not overpowering bass!

The specs for the arro's are

Frequency Response 40 Hz to 20 kHz ± 3 dB with proper room positioning
Impedance 4 ohms
Sensitivity 87 dB
Power 80 W max. program
Crossover 2.4 kHz ND order linkwitz-Riley (optimized)
Woofer 4 1/2” sandwich cone double magnet
Tweeter impregnated textile dome 3/4” (low resonance freq.)
Max Sepal's In average size listening room:
103 dB peak (12’ x 15’) from pair at 2 m
Dimensions w 5 x d 7 x h 34”
w 127 x d 178 x h 864 mm

At 4ohms and 87dB I'd recommend high current.

Some time ago I went to a hi-fi show at hammersmith and the Rega/Totem demo room was set up using 4 rega monobloc amps. From memory they only had smallish type Totems on show.