Thank you for your experience and responses to this thread...I am looking to mate a KSA 200-S and KRC-3 preamp w/ totem model 1's or mani-2's if I can find a good used pair...seems like buying a used amplifier would be "safer" than buying a used speaker, I dunno, I really want the mani-2's but 4k for brand new is way too much for my budget, I have heard the little ksa 50-S drive model 1's and the sound was very good, I was really surprised, so I know that the krell/totem synergy very much appeals to me....some say the totems are bass and treble heightened to elucidate a dynamic presentation, i.e., colored...and to be fair I do understand what they are referring to, I have noticed this when attending the totem rooms at the NY shows, but still they are damn imopressive at their price range. You have to go alot higher to find something serious that rivals or exceeds them, as near as I can tell. I have always been blown away by a minimoinitor on a targe R-4 stand that throws sucha huge open and deep soundstage w/ tight, fast bass, and yet it dissappears as only minimonitors do...I have an older brother who is wealthy as helll (got me into this in the first place!) and he has owned some of the best floorstanders, Kharma, Theil, some pretty nie stuff, I dont care, I have always felt like a floorstander always sounds like there are two speakers sitting ther makeing the music and for me the "illusion" experince is gone, at least for me
