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

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.

I am beyond cheap. I just run bare wire at the end of the speaker wire on my Mani 2’s. I just have it long enough to connect the posts.