Confused as to where to go next...looking for warmth

Switch cables to Cardas......................

Thank you, millercarbon and pastorbob.  

I am using Totem speaker cables and Transparent Audio interconnects. 

Maybe cold would be a better term than dark.  The sound is very clear, but it is just lacking something..maybe the presence you mention.

Do you have an issue with the Liberty amp that I am using, or is it more that an integrated would be a more simple setup?

I will take a look at the springs thread and the wires you recommend.

I hear that same cool and slightly dark, somewhat uninterested sound when I stream from Tidal Hi-Fi - compared to vinyl so I get what you mean. You could try adding some wooden cutting boards under your components. It will sweeten things up. The softer the wood, the warmer the sound. Kinda.

Hello @andy727 I have Totem Forest speakers (purchased new 2007), a gen 1 Freya and Gungnir MB...so some reasonable basis for responding to you. The system is posted if you are interested in further detail.

I love the Forests. Sure there are better speakers out there and you can always spend more but I’ve not grown tired of mine. They always step up and reflect improvements made elsewhere in the system. They generate great imaging, generous soundstage width and depth, produce phenomenal bass, are quick, and reproduce subtleties of tone and texture. Music sounds like music from them. I won’t go on so as to avoid nauseating the haters.

Having said all that, what I fought for years was brightness. Those metal dome tweeters could be punishing on poor quality recordings.

Things that GREATLY helped alleviate this in my system (and in no particular order): Gungnir Multibit, burning CDs to hard drive and playing back via Auralic Aries Mini into the Gungnir, Cardas cabling (as pastorbob mentioned), use of Audioquest diagonal speaker hookup (single wiring for bi-wireable speakers), room treatment, attention to speaker placement - distance from one another and from wall behind them, especially), and use of a heavy plinth as foundation for them. I discovered elevating the Forests a good few inches together with some "rake" really helped open up the sound, yet did not (with the other system elements in place as noted) aggravate the brightness issue.

Most recently, I found an Isotek Aquarius power conditioner to greatly benefit sound quality.

I don’t dispute the contribution that amp quality will make on what you hear but I enjoy the Forests with any of 4 very different amps - Merrill Audio Taranis (Class D), Prima Luna Prologue Premium (integrated tube A/B push-pull), Hegel H200 (solid state), and even a "low wpc" (Class A solid state) First Watt F7. Some adjustments, e.g. to placement or speaker hookup might be needed, but the Forests ain’t that fussy (as intended and designed by Vince B.). Things to my ear sound very very good with any of these.

I’ve thrown a laundry list at you. To simplify, the top 2 things I’d suggest starting with are speaker placement and cabling. Borrow some different speaker cable and interconnects from The CableCo.com and see if something might work better for you than the Transparent wire. I’d urge you to first maximize what you can get with your current electronics and then consider upgrading the amp.

Hope this helps and you find what you are looking for from the Forests.

agree w miller

that arcam avr is the major problem - head over shoulders

then, as more minor adjustments...
- try streaming qobuz instead of tidal, its sounds warmer
- gumby is a good idea, or find a used metrum dac, or a neko d100 - all well under a grand
- make sure you are using all copper, no silver/silver coated cabling