Trying to hook up Totem 1 Bookshelf’s …..


Trying to hook up Naim Nait 5i to Totem 1 bookshelf speakers…..on the back of each of the Totems there are four connectors - left (top to bottom) is two connectors with red cable connecting from top connector to bottom connector. On right same thing but with black cable connecting top to bottom connectors. 
why would there be four connectors per speaker …..do I just connect into top black and top red and ignore the bottom connectors?

sorry for my ignorance.

thomastrouble

The top set connects to the tweeters; the lower to the woofers. You could run what's called a bi-wire cable (Generic Amazon set here) from your amp to the speakers after you remove the jumper cables. Opinions are divided as to whether biwiring makes a palpable sonic difference, though much more learned minds than me can weigh in on this. 

I would suggest running your normal speaker cable into the lows only because woofers are tough to drive. So.etimes I'll run one wire into the red upper and one I to the black lower. Sonic difference? Don't know.

I owned the standard and Signature version Totem Model Ones. Tried a few different connection options over the years. Here are the results of all three.

Top: with the silver jumper wires installed, connecting to the top binding posts reveals a little more of the tweeter, slightly less from the woofer.

Bottom: with the silver jumper wires installed, the tweeter is a tad more rolled off ever so slightly and lower bass comes through a tad more.

Bi-wire: jumpers removed, bi-wire speaker cables.  I was not expecting much of a difference and tried it with pure copper ofc and silver-over-copper bi wire speaker cables. Noticed a bit of reinforcement to both the mids and lows, with no loss of upper end tweeter presentation.

Preferred bi-wire speaker connectivity over any of the single wire connections.

Thanks for that decooney that’s what I was expecting based on another reply here. However, my new listening room sounds horrible as it’s barely treated yet and honestly it would be impossible to hear the difference until I’ve taken care of treating the room. Two more weeks I should be up and running with my system

and dialing everything in.

i never heard a room going from "room sounds horrible" to "great" after room treatment. If the speakers are placed correctly and you are sitting in the sweet spot, you should expect going from good to great or at most OK to great.

Unless the room is a diamond shape glass cabin.

Something else must cause it to be horrible and I know the Totem speakers are pretty awesome for small-ish rooms.

All solid information, they are correct.  

I simply pass long stripped wire ends through the drilled holes in the speaker posts and bridge the tweeter and woofer posts of each positive/negative.  No jumpers needed.  I've done this with dozens of speakers.  Best of luck.