Focus Audio FS688 wiring tweak?

Yep, I've done it (with my Focus FS888), and it definitely has an effect, but for my specific situation, I actually like it without the jumper. In my setup, I use different wires for highs and lows (Audience Au24 for the highs, Acoustic Zen Hologram II's for the lows). IMHO, the Au24 is nearly unbeatable for highs/mids, but when using a high-powered amp and 4ohm speakers, the Au24 does not have the bass performance that I like. Also IMHO, the AZ Hologram is fantastic at bass. Some people say that using different wires creates problems with integrating the highs/lows, but I have not found this to be the case...perhaps because both Audience and AZ use the same OHNO copper?

Anyways, adding the jumper to the negative speaker terminal improved the things you mentioned...larger soundstage, better air/spacial cues, etc. However, I did lose the bass performance of the AZ cable when I did this. I haven't yet tried using the same wire top and bottom with this tweak, but I wouldn't be surprised if it made differences...

I tried this tonight with my Studio 40's. I must of put them jumpers on and of 5 or 6 times.

I found that there was an increase in soundstage, insturments and people seemed better placed. However I also found this muffled or blured the sound. So while the inturments were better placed they seemed a less refined. I guess what I am looking for is lack of microdynamics. They just seemed flatter. Both the positives and negitives were subtle, but in the end I opted to leave the jumpers out.

This also does not mean someone else will not have good results. It just mean for me, I prefered them without. BUT.. it is diffinatly worth playing with.

I know it is a pain to start messing around with this sort of thing, but I too would also be interested in hear what other people think.

Cheers.

Phil and NIck thanks for your response. I pulled my jumpers out to compare.

They had been in place since last winter when I was running them with the Cambridge Audio amp. Was really suprised at how much different the Jungson sounded with the jumpers out.

With jumpers the difference in bass was most obvious. There was a slight loss in depth (this would probably be alot more noticable on the 888's) but what really struck me was the loss of fullness and impact. Somthing that seems to be a signature of FA.

I figured it was speaker related. But its obvious that its amp dependent as well.

Looking at the strengths and weaknesses of the CA amp I think (or at least have a theory) why. According to a TNT review (which I agree with) the amp has a recessesed midrange, really dosen't try to do low bass but instead concentrated its bass energy in the 50hz and above range and puts the brakes on on dynamic passages. In otherwords a boom and sizzle amp.

I'm thinking the better integration I was hearing was a slight loss of bass energy and a relaxed high that helped the midrange not sound so recessed. The concentration of energy in the midbass region may have helped mask some of the loss of fullness in this region.

Bottom line it worked very well with the CA but not with the Jungson.

Live and learn.