Totem Hawk: What changes/revisions over the years?


I'm looking at buying some used Totem Acoustic Hawks and I'm curious what changes/revisions have been made. When roughly did they happen and were they for the better or worse ? Are they using cheaper drivers in the newer versions ? Would you buy a newer or and older set ?
Thanks.
128x128kennyman
I don't think that Vince would play around ruining his best designed speaker (IMHO). He uses same drivers and not much of improvement (no need to improve what's already perfect) on the rest of ultra-premium grade electronic components and wires. Have a chance for dealer demo who will be able to show the speaker 'behind the scenes' and you'll be amazed what kind of quality components this speaker have. Some of dealers will unscrew the woofer and/or crossover to show you that unbeat built quality.
The Scanspeak bass-mid driver is modified by Totem to have increased voice coil travel, throw an increadible soundstage and deep bass compatible with large speaker.
The current model shows better efficiency by 1...2dB/W/m, but conservatively I'd rate them as ~83 db/w/m and forgive Vince for matching the rest of audiophile market.

You will need very powerful amp to drive them. I had them hooked up to Sansui AU-9500 for a while and that wasn't enough, so I caught a great deal on Sunfire 300 NIB and it was quite a change. Unfortunately I had to replace them more than decade ago with substantially larger foot print Aerial 10t due to the 14m.o. toddler who pushed and dropped Hawks a couple of times. The way they stand on their own 3 balls, you can blow an air on them to make them fall
I have a pr of Totem Model I signatures which I love.
Are the Hawks as good on Classical music , which is 90% of my listening ?

Any ideas on the best bang for the buck Totem for Classical ?
Thanks Czarivey. Great in depth reply. I have to say I'm relieved that the Hawks have remained the same during their production. I remember with the Model Ones and the Rainmakers they changed the tweeters and you had to see what color dot they had etc. I also have heard that for the Model Ones they are no longer using Dynaudio drivers and have a different version, some are saying a cheaper driver (is Vince feeling the pinch?) and you'd definitely have to keep that in mind when buying those used. The older Totem/ Dynaudio drivers could be tricky to get if one ever failed on you?
Now as far as what I have for an amp, I have a Musical Fidelity A308 to drive them so I should be fine in that area ? Anybody here had this combo before?
I know what you mean about them falling over. I haven't had Hawks but I have had Arros and if you just looked at them the wrong way they would fall over. I wonder if you mass loaded them if they would be stable enough (my kids are teenagers now). Did you have yours mass loaded ?
I know this discussion is about Hawks, but if you have not heard the new Element speakers you should listen to them if possible. They are pretty spectacular.
It's one of the safest speaker to own if bad comes to worst. You'll always find parts without loosing arm and leg with ease directly from Totem.