I bought a pair of previous generation M12.2 stand mounts 3 years ago.  The i-series Epos's had just been released, and I listened to both versions, but chose the m12.2's to avoid a price hike, plus they sounded better to me than the newer version.  I think all the i-series changes were the result of a change to a different Chinese factory and tooling, along with some design modifications.  The aluminum dome tweeters switched from using neodymium magnets to ferrite magnets, plus a new aluminum cast face plate, said to increase cooling.  The new tweeters were reported to have smoother response.

There was a little customer feedback on at least one of the i-series speaker models, that the tweeter was too loud.  At one point Epos suggested a fix by adding a resister in series to tame the tweeters.  If I recall, they admitted that the new tweeter's sensitivity turned out to be higher than they had expected.

My thoughts on the Epos sound as I have come to believe, is that the midwoofer covers a very wide band, 60hz-4.5kHz in the M12.2, and almost as wide in the M16i, covering the most critical musical range with the one driver.  And in the case of the M12.2 at least, there are no crossover components on the midbass speaker to speak of.  There is a capacitor high pass filter to the tweeter, and a single coil for phase adjustment.  I think of the whole thing as having some of the advantages of a single driver crossover less  speaker, at least below 4.5kHz.

The in room frequency response of my set shows the 150-700Hz range down a few decibels, then strong response until reaching the 4.5kHz crossover region where there is a narrow dip before rising again.

I think the single driver covering such a broad range, plus a couple strong areas of response, combined with a metal dome tweeter gives an impression of clarity and livelyness in an important musical range.  But I suppose one man's livelyness can be another man's harshness. My only wish for my M12.2's would be stronger response from 100-800Hz (which may not be an issue with M16i's), and a little flatter response overall.

Sorry, I have not heard Totems.  Add to that the fact that I can't hear anything higher than 11kHZ.

As to clarity, the Epos are clear sounding, but clear is a relative term, and probably relates more to emphasis of certain frequencies.  I do think traditional Epos sound is clear and striking.  The reason I mentioned the somewhat subdued lower midrange response of my set is that I think it might accentuate the striking higher frequencies in comparison. 

FYI- the bass in my room is strongly reinforced from the Epos and also my subwoofers, so it's almost like there is sort of a hole in the sound between the mid/low bass, and the nice midrange. I want to say that I believe this is due to my combination of speakers and room.

To sum it up, I think the traditional Epos sound is great for horns, vocals, piano, and percussion, though I play a lot of classic rock as well.  I think it sounds the opposite of boring.  I have heard some people like a laid back mellow sound.  I don't think of Epos that way.  The M16i is a different speaker than mine, though it does share a lot.  I wish I could be more help, but different speaker, different room, different ears. Trust your ears.