Are my speaker cables too long?

Hi all,
Am currently running a pair of rega kytes in my kitchen / eating area). These are run off my main system in the room next door comprising of a Rotel ra-04 amp and a meridian 206b cdp /Rega planar 3 and a pair of rega ela mk1's.

The system next door sounds great (for the moment ) but the sound is lacking in the kitchen. The speaker cable run is approx 11metres and it's cheap stuff from the local telly shop - labelled LTS high grade speaker cable and cost approx £5 or £6 in total.

Anyway, enough details. I know the acoustics are worse in the kitchen (wooden floor etc) but am wondering whether the cable is losing some of the detail. Can anybody suggest some fairly unobtrusive cable (must be able to squezze through a hole in the wall!) that could help to sort things out or do you think the existing cable is prob o.k?

Yours in need, dos

 

Get decent speaker cable. Any cable loses signal no matter what the length, however a better quality cable will lose less.
John

 

Loads of stuff on ebay. As this is not for your main speakers (presumably you do most of your listening in the lounge) you dont need anything too expensive.
Have a look at this on ebay Item No 300210749956. This is just an example, however there are more reasonable alternatives. Also have a look at Richer Sounds for some of their Gale cable. If it is on offer then they are perfectly adequate for something like this.
Regards
John

 

Dos mate,

don't just hit on anything;

Have a word with pete at fatkat acoustics (aka zanash) who will be able to advise you pretty accurately.

YOU've got reasoanable kit there......you don't need to spend loads....but it deserves far better than "cheap stuff"!

I know not every one agrees but all you ahve to do is listen .....then decide for yourself!

Any problems tracking pete down ...pm me.

 

YOu may have.





MUCH divided opinion.

I am not going to start these arguements all over again.

All I ask is that you are not influenced (overly) by anyones strong opinion (and there are those here certainly).

Just use your ears, compare for yourself wiith tracks you know very well........and agreed ..... A/B blind fold testing would/could prove that matter conclusively to you......

In my experience and from what I've gathered a Meridian 206 is totally worthy of good quality cables.

 

11m? Save your money-it's a kitchen

 

Is it door bell type cable?

You can get 2mm cable for about £30 for a 50m reel from CPC Farnell.

Or make your own: http://www.venhaus1.com/diycatfivecables.html

 

If its 11m, cable could get dear.

True enough.

Just depends on how critical your kitchen system is to you.

Your call!

 

Thanks for all the advice, i think some experimentation is in order.

 

Dos, by coincidence, I also have 11M runs in the lounge (where domestic arrangements compel me to have the speakers at the one end and the amps at the other). I once had a cheap wire. However, when I made the Keilidhs active, I suddenly needed twice as many wires, and they had to fit under the skinny apologies the Swiss have for skirting boards. This meant buying an expensive (for me) cable - QED Profile Silver 12, bought for its extreme skinniness (less than 2mm).

But did it make any difference (prior to going active, of course)? No, it didn't. My advice is, therefore, stick with your cheap wires, because expensive ones are not going to make one iota of difference - except to your wallet, of course.

 

Why don't you connect the current cables that run to the kitchen to the loudspeakers in your living room to see if the cable is at fault..?
Maybe an idea...

 

If the cable really is bell wire, ie something like 0.5mm figure 8 then at 11 meters, yes you should upgrade it. It will have enough series resistance to be audible so I'd suggest going up to something like 79 strand which is well under £1m these days.

For the sake of <£22, just do it.

 

Have tried swapping the cables around (i.e. by taking the kytes into the lounge) and there seems to be not much difference so I will desist, spend the money on some flowers for my long suffering wife and live with the sound.

The lively difference of opinion is interesting and infuriating in equal measure I must say! However, I have found all the points made generally helpful (including SM's - thankyou) - I guess you've just gotta take everything with a pinch of salt and make your own decisions. Not having any mates into hifi (they've got much more sensible habits) this is one of the resources I am increasingly relying on to help make sensible decisions so thnks for any advice.

Is hifi always this frustrating?

 

Mike you were not asked to stop discussing the issue, you were instead asked to stop making obnoxious comments. I have now banned you.

 

I've taken this thread back to it's original purpose. Can we keep it this way.

 

I'm sure the action will be apprecaited

Yes, you do.

 

Only if you take it seriously. Remember that you have to satisfy only one pair of ears, yours. If you simply choose the sound that you like and ignore totally anyone who says otherwise, you'll be fine.

 

Very good advice indeed

 

I don't think there is anything wrong with making your hifi a hobby and interest.

I wonder where the line is drawn before you are considered, as Tones suggests, to be taking it too seriously?


Answers on a post card.......

Totally agreed.

....hmmmm

Nothing wrong (or shouldn't be) with asking for/receiving ideas.

Like I say isn't that what a forum is for?






(edit; I know this comment isn't relavent to your quote Tones......I'll leave it any way)

 

Am definately not taking it too seriously but do get frustrated wondering where to go next. I've recently ditched my rotel cpd for a meridian 206b (for next to no extra cost - good old ebay bidding wars ) and am happier with the sound. I also tried adding a rega phono stage to the planar 3 (dynavector 10x5) and that made too little a difference so took that back - needless to say the hifi shop was aghast and confused that it did not improve things. I am generally happy with the vinyl side of things so probably shouldn't have bothered.
But, I am still unhappy with the cd side of things. I guess I should turn my attention to the amp to improve things or maybe look at the interconnect - this was approx £100 and is made by a local now deceased shop that I got my amp from but am wondering whether that is causing some of the problems...ho hum.
With 2 pretty small children and no TV I am finding that I am spending more and more time sitting in front of the speakers just listening (approx 2 hrs / night) as well as trying to learn the guitar so it has become more important.
Anyway, I'll stop waffling and as I've said before any advice is much, much appreciated.