I used to have many pairs of totem speakers: model 1’s, arro, and a couple pairs of mani 2’s. I used a Rel sub with the model 1’s. The mani’s are far better than the model 1’s but you need a very good powerful amp, even the model 1’s need a good amp to sound their best.
I sold all of my totem’s and bought all Usher speakers. I think the new Ushers blow away the totems mainly because of the Diamond tweeter. Even their silk or beryllium tweeters sound better. A small usher speaker is the s-520, the bigger bookshelf are the x-719 with silk tweeter. A move up is to the mini-x with the Diamond tweeter. I’ve owned all of these plus some of their floorstanding speakers and still have the s-520’s and their larger x-towers.
