Integrated amp for Totem Sttaff


Hello all. I am new to the site but have been ravenously reading reviews and posts the last few weeks. I am in the proccess of replacing my 20 year old Boston A 400's with the Sttafs....Now my dilemma.I am currently running a Denon 2106 and have found a helpful dealer selling...Naim, Creek, Sim, Cambridge, Arcam. I am seriously considering jumping in the deep end of the audio pool and get a new power source as well to match....My problem..The dealer is a 3 hr drive away so auditioning the Totems and the matching amps is possible, im hoping your experince may help me have a better starting point if im to drive that far....I know other brands are out there, but I dont have access to viewing them, let alone buying them. Im hoping $ 1,500 cdn will put me in a good spot to get the most from the Totems...Thanks in advance.
mxwizard
I recently hooked up a pair of Sttafs to the Creek Destiny Integrated and it was very nice. It's really as high end as anyone needs. May I also suggest the new Marantz PM-15S1GL Integrated. It's very nice and would be a good compliment to the Sttafs. Build quality is amazing too.
It's been a number of months since I've come back to the thread. First things first:

DMG. As Lush stated, Krell and Totem do not go together well at all.

MxWizard. I'm not positive if you're situation is... what amp you've ended up with or if you still even have your Totem's, but if you do - I made a recent discovery; the Vista Audio i-34. Man, this thing is absolutely unreal (on the both Sttaf and ML Vantages). I've got it next to two integrated amps in excess of $8000 and the i34 does not sound far outclassed at all. In fact, it's doing some things even they cannot do. Call it synergy, call it whatever, but for just under $1000 USD - it's stellar.
I actually settled on the Cambridge 840A v2 after the dust settled from my initial transaction. It is nicely paired with my Sttaf's.
hi, my two cents is the rogue audio intergrated, it sounds killer for the dough and has more power than you could want with this speaker, good luck , chris
OK, I've had an opportunity to listen to the Naim Nait 5i, Creek 5350SE and Simaudio Moon i-1 through the Totem Sttafs since my initial post in December. Although the Naim was clean and articulate, it lacked any low end extension. Bi-wiring improved the situation, but I knew the Sttaf was capable of providing better bass without tweeks. Both the Creek and Simaudio provided tight, extended bass, and you'd be hard pressed to say one was better than another in this area. Overall, the Creek is extremely neutral and easy to listen to. Mids and highs are clean, and it is laid back in it's presentation. The Sim is a bit more forward so I felt it was more dynamic and engaging. The dealer who staged the audition had never heard the Sim before and said if he could take the low end from the Creek and the highs from the Sim that would be the ideal $1500 amp. Although there were some slight differences between the two, we both felt that for the price you couldn't go wrong purchasing either unit. The Creeks warranty is 2 years, while the Sims is 10. The inside of the Sim is extremely efficient and very well laid out. You get the impression that very little could go wrong. On the other hand, the Creek is more complex and not as well laid out. The Creek supports two sets of speakers, while the Sim handles one. The Sim has a convenient MP3 jack on it's front panel, but the compressed format of MP3 didn't sound very good through this high end gear. At this point, I'm leaning toward the Simaudio Moon i-1. For my taste it just seems a bit more musical. I'll keep you posted.