Speaker cable lengths.

Hi folks. I was under the impression that cables had to be the same each side so each channel of the amp was presented with the same load. Is this actually an issue? I've always kept them the same but just moved house and suddenly it would be much easier if one cable could be 1/5th the length of the other.

 

Only under exceptional circumstances will different lengths matter.

Very long and thin cables should be the same length because loop resistance will be high - but then you shouldn't use such cables in the first place other than perhaps for satellite speakers.

In the vast majority of cases the cable characteristics are normal enough that it doesn't matter at all.

 

Cheers. Cable is 2x4.0mm so in no way thin.

 

Excellent - proper speaker cable

 

so the designer of your amp makes the signal paths as close as they can ..similarly the tt maker and arm maker do the same ....

for some numpty to come along and use a one 1m cable on the left chanel and 10m on the right ..coz they don't like to see the spooled up excess ....

if you want to get the very best from your system ...always use the same lengths of speaker or any other cable , thats performing a mirror of its twin ...

if your not interested in the absolute performance of your gear ..then you can use what ever you like.

Most amps will happily work into assymetric cable loads ...but why bother ?

 

I agree with Rob. Only in exceptional circumstances will it make a difference.

 

yes if you want to run a de optimised system ...then thats fine ...no problem ...howerer if you want your systen fine tuned like a formula one car ..then you will make all efforts to optimise the system ...

I'm not telling you what to do ..you can please yourself , but if your striving for the very best your system can produce ...you will not be running dissimilar length cables ...

you'll be telling us next that you can run different types of cables for each speaker run ..?

oh yes thats the same as running dissimilar lenghts silly me

 

Assuming the use of a cable with a good cross section, giving it low resistance and a sensible capacitance, I am guessing that even if one lead was 1m and the other 10m (an extreme case) the imbalances caused by the cables would still be insignificant compared imbalance in the speaker pair caused by the manufacturing tolerances of the crossovers and drivers.

And if I ran one speaker on a length of ordinary 4 sq mm speaker cable, and the other on a piece of 45A cable as used to wire a domestic cooker, I doubt I would hear a difference.

 

Do they?

 

i found out through experience that cables almost all of the time do make a difference in sound stage if one is of significant short length than the other, while testing signal path using water running via pipes pump onto two different tanks the shorter one logically filled the other faster, surely it must have the same effect with electrical signal path?

 

Yes silly you.

Internal wiring is usually a few inches in length and adding an inch or two is completely irrelevant, both to the amp and your nonsensical comparison to speaker cable.

Oh and yes, you could use different cables on each channel and the same rule applies. Unless they are dramatically different in electrical characteristics the sound doesn't change.

Stop talking rot.

Spot-on Brian.

 

Speaker cables don't matter much.

Interconnects don't matter much.

Power leads don't matter much.

Choice of recording is very important.

Component choice is important.

Stylus cleanliness is very important.

Stands / shelves under turntables matter.

Stands under ss amps don't matter much.



I could connect one of my speakers up with a 10m long daisy chain of paper clips and it would still sound fine.

In fact I'm tempted to do this in my room at Scalford...

 

i guess nothing matters, only i pods, or bell wire? on the recording choice there is no choice.

 

I don't recommend it. The daisy chain of paper clips would have a high resistance and at best would prove an intermittent conductor. The rubbing surfaces of oxidised steel might even work as rectifiers, passing current only one way!

Try a pair of leads from Halfords that you would use to start your car when the battery was flat, or some welding leads.

Hint: Maplin sell very decent cheap speaker cable.

 

Soo, to answer your question. use whatever lengths you like, 1m and 10m will sound closer together than 1+9m coiled up vs 10m

 

Utter tosh.

The increase in legth to make any noticable difference would be huge.

 

Zanash, the above is the most arrant nonsense. One length of 0.5m and another of 10m of 4mm cable will have precisely zero discernible effect.

The only down side is that if the OP is using an expesive wanky wire, the cable vendor willnot make as much profit.

Chris

 

Oh GOOD GOD.

Do the sums, Nando. In a normal listening room, moving your head a few microns will have a far bigger effect than one channel going through 10m and another going through 0.5m.

Chris

 

what you do with the information is entirly your own decision.......disbelive if you want ..

just because its old school and not currently flavour of the month does not make it valueless or not relevant .

So if its tosh why do designers got to such length to make certain the signal paths are of equal eletrcal charactoristics ?

or don't you believe they do that either ?

 

It is valueless and totally irrelevant, though, Zanash. Batcch variation in speakers will have a far greater effect.

Do you sell speaker cables for a living by any chance?

Chris