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Thread: Speaker cable length ?????

  1. #1
    Join Date: Feb 2009

    Location: Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire

    Posts: 18

    Default Speaker cable length ?????

    So Guys

    Whats the better option?

    1/ Both same length with spare coiled up some where?

    2/ Cut to correct length?

    If I cut I will have one length of 5 metres and one 3 meters.

    Cheers Phil

  2. #2
    Join Date: May 2008

    Location: A Strangely Isolated Place in Suffolk with Far Away Trains Passing By...

    Posts: 14,535
    I'm David.

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    With a proper HiFi grade cable (and I don't mean the crummy QED Micro sold by the tens of kilometres by many Sevenoaks stores), a 3m and 5m length wioll be fine. The only proviso is with Naim amps, but even then, we sold lengths like this (often with Chord Odyssey twin) with no stability issues.

    My own system has something like 4m and 6m lengths (I laid the cables under the carpet and cut them where they exit near the speakers, I've been through all this bullpoo).

    Seriously, as long as the speakers aren't a stupid load like Apogee and some ML speakers are, then you'll have no problem. Just make sure the wire is of good gauge and that you use decent terminations. Moving the speakers a few inches each way will make a 1000x more difference IMO.
    Tear down these walls; Cut the ties that held me
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  3. #3
    Join Date: Feb 2009

    Location: Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire

    Posts: 18

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    Cheers Thanks

  4. #4
    Join Date: Nov 2008

    Location: North Down /Northern Ireland/ UK

    Posts: 19,484
    I'm Neil.

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    Quote Originally Posted by keeper View Post
    So Guys

    Whats the better option?

    1/ Both same length with spare coiled up some where?

    2/ Cut to correct length?

    If I cut I will have one length of 5 metres and one 3 meters.

    Cheers Phil
    Hi Phil

    I would keep both lengths the same. I would not coil the extra, but wrap it between your elbow and hand and tie, but not tightly in the middle. If you coil a cable you can create an induction loop and that can cause issues(not particularly serious, unless the cable is very long or as Dave says your amps are Naim)with the amplifier/and mess up the sound.

    The reason you should keep the cables the same length is down to timing issues. I believe that if the signal arrives at one speaker sooner than the other, or later depending on your view, it can mess up subtlety of timing and image positioning. That has been my experience anyway.

    5m cables are okay and should cause no issues. My own cables are 7m long, which other than cost, my cables are Atlas Marvos, causes no problems(bearing in mind the cost here you can see I take cables being the same length seriously. If not, I could have saved my self a fair bit of cash by having one 2m shorter) However once you go over this length issues can arise. You can put extra strain on amplifiers that have not got particularly good current/driving capability, if you use crazy lengths of cable that may its self be hard to get current down. If using long lengths of cable check the spec of the cable for capacitance and resistance and pick the one that has the easiest spec to get voltage down.

    The cables should be very good quality and if you can I would see if your dealer will let you try at home. Different cables sound different.

    One thing Phil you don't say what kit you have. What is it? I might be able to suggest cables to try if I knew

    Dave is right about positioning of the speakers. If this is wrong you will not hear what better cables can do in your set up. Attention to set up details or failure to do so can't be compensated for by buying dear cables or kit. The quality is in the set up. A cheaper system well matched will outperform a dearer well matched system if it is not well SET UP. IMHO/E


    Regards D S D L
    Last edited by Spectral Morn; 05-04-2009 at 16:40.
    Regards Neil

  5. #5
    Join Date: May 2008

    Location: A Strangely Isolated Place in Suffolk with Far Away Trains Passing By...

    Posts: 14,535
    I'm David.

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    I think the signal travells down a cable a few million times faster than sound DL. Seriously, someone did a study on it once and apparently 2mm movement backward or forward of one of the speakers accounted for miles of cable in terms of "timing" errors.

    It was purely 'cos Naim amps were prone to (almost) ringing and having inapropriate lengths of wires upset them - honest! I was there at the time Room acoustics will totally swamp most of these things anyway.

    Just make sure the gauge of wire is more than sufficient for the task, that's all.

    Back in the day, we dared to try odd lengths of Naim A5 cable on our demo setup and couldn't hear one iota of difference as long as the shortest length was 3m as recommended by Naim, who used to use 11m lengths in their huge, once echoey dem room.
    Tear down these walls; Cut the ties that held me
    Crying out at the top of my voice; Tell me now if you can hear me

  6. #6
    Join Date: Nov 2008

    Location: North Down /Northern Ireland/ UK

    Posts: 19,484
    I'm Neil.

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    Hi Dave

    I think we should agree to differ on this one. I have heard the effects of a few meters in length. A little bits neither here nor there but meters, thats a different thing.

    I agree about positioning of speakers as I said above, but not that one cable being significantly shorter than an other is okay. I'll leave it there.


    It was my early experiences with a set of Pro-ac super Tabletes in a small room as near field mini monitors showed things like this up. This was 20 years ago but the experiences taught me that everything makes a difference and attention to detail would make or break the sound. Nothing to date as shown those early years experiences to be in error.....SO FAR.

    Regards D S D L
    Last edited by Spectral Morn; 05-04-2009 at 16:57.
    Regards Neil

  7. #7
    Join Date: Feb 2009

    Location: Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire

    Posts: 18

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    Hi Guys

    The set up is
    Focal 806 speakers
    Sugden A21 series 2 Amp
    Creek Classic CD
    Chord crimson interconnects
    Chord carnival silverscreen speaker cable


    I would take 180cm off the length.

    Cheers Phil

  8. #8
    Join Date: Mar 2008

    Location: Galashiels

    Posts: 13,669
    I'm inthescottishmafia.

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    Well seeing as electrical signals travel down cables at near the speed of light,I have to say you are doing bloody well if you can hear a difference in timing with one channel's cable being a couple of meters longer!

  9. #9
    Join Date: Apr 2009

    Location: Near Saffron Walden, Essex

    Posts: 7,087
    I'm Dave.

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    Phil,
    As you already have the cable, I would suggest you just bundle (not roll) it up and hide it out of the way. You might just hear the difference in lengths but, more importantly, you might want to move the system one day and need equal lengths. Or you might want to sell your cable one day. You never know.

  10. #10
    Join Date: Jan 2009

    Location: Essex

    Posts: 31,846
    I'm openingabottleofwine.

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    Quote Originally Posted by DSJR View Post
    I think the signal travells down a cable a few million times faster than sound DL. Seriously, someone did a study on it once and apparently 2mm movement backward or forward of one of the speakers accounted for miles of cable in terms of "timing" errors.
    2 metres of cable will create an additional electrical delay of 10ns (0.01us) at most. A 2mm change in the position of the speaker will cause an acoustic delay of about 6us. The electrical delay is therefore utterly insignificant.

    Having dissimilar lengths of cable may have some audible effect for two reasons. Depending on the resistance per unit length of the cable used, the variation in impedance with frequency of the speaker, as seen by the amplifier will change, and will differ for differing cable lengths in the two channels. Also the resistance of the cable effectively appears in series with the output impedance of the amplifier, so reducing the damping factor. Different cable lengths in the two channels will mean that the control of the loudspeaker by the amplifier will not be the same for each channel. It strongly depends on the speakers, cable and amplifier used. These effects may go some way in explaining the effects that Neil hears.

    The change in channel balance due to resistive power loss in the cables will be quite negligable.

    If you do decide to keep both speaker cables the same length, then as has been already been said, don't coil up the surplus length, rather arrange it as a loose 'zig- zag'.

    In my own case the two cable lengths are roughly 17m and 8m respectively for the left and right hand channels and I have not found any problems.

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