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Thread: Speaker cable length

  1. #31
    Join Date: May 2016

    Location: Much Wenlock

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    I'm Gary.

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    Quote Originally Posted by scotty38 View Post
    I had read that comment before I posted so it doesn't change my view. No offence intended to you whatsoever but I do think you're being overly sensitive where it's not necessary.

    I do have OCD, not to any huge extent, but it is recognised... Just before you ask!
    I'm too sensitive to ask!

  2. #32
    Join Date: Jan 2009

    Location: Essex

    Posts: 31,850
    I'm openingabottleofwine.

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    Since using monoblock amplifiers situated behind each speaker, I have replaced long speaker leads of unequal length with short (< 1 metre) speaker leads. But to do so I have replaced short (~ 1 metre) but equal signal interconnects between the preamp and power amplifier with very long (15 meter) balanced line cables.

    I can understand the desire to have the cabling symmetric, but the effects caused by unequal speaker cable lengths are likely to be dwarfed by the tolerance between the two speakers (even if they have consecutive serial numbers). Also, is the listening room entirely symmetric, both in dimensions, the arrangement of furniture and in wall coverings?

    I don't think it OCD to want to make all cable pairs the same length (even to a precision of +/-1mm), or to keep the cables tidy. I have far worse OCD habits: such as always replacing a CD in its jewel case so the writing on the disk is horizontal. Whereas I don't do that with an LP!
    Barry

  3. #33
    Join Date: Jan 2014

    Location: london se6

    Posts: 823
    I'm AndyElectroNumpty.

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    I just make sure all mine are the same colour. Seems to work ok.

  4. #34
    Join Date: Jan 2009

    Location: Essex

    Posts: 31,850
    I'm openingabottleofwine.

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    Quote Originally Posted by smangus View Post
    I just make sure all mine are the same colour. Seems to work ok.
    The late Peter Walker of Quad when asked what was the most important property a speaker cable should have, somewhat sarcastically replied: "The most important property any speaker cable should have is that it should be long enough to reach from the amplifier to the speaker. After that, the second most important property the cable should have is that the colour of the insulation should match the carpet over which it runs."

    Peter Walker was well known to be a no-nonsense engineer, and didn't suffer fools gladly.
    Barry

  5. #35
    Join Date: Jan 2014

    Location: london se6

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    I'm AndyElectroNumpty.

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    He sounds like my kinda guy

  6. #36
    Bigman80 Guest

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    Quote Originally Posted by Barry View Post
    Since using monoblock amplifiers situated behind each speaker, I have replaced long speaker leads of unequal length with short (< 1 metre) speaker leads. But to do so I have replaced short (~ 1 metre) but equal signal interconnects between the preamp and power amplifier with very long (15 meter) balanced line cables.

    I can understand the desire to have the cabling symmetric, but the effects caused by unequal speaker cable lengths are likely to be dwarfed by the tolerance between the two speakers (even if they have consecutive serial numbers). Also, is the listening room entirely symmetric, both in dimensions, the arrangement of furniture and in wall coverings?

    I don't think it OCD to want to make all cable pairs the same length (even to a precision of +/-1mm), or to keep the cables tidy. I have far worse OCD habits: such as always replacing a CD in its jewel case so the writing on the disk is horizontal. Whereas I don't do that with an LP!
    Slightly off topic, would you prefer longer speaker cable and shorter ICs or longer ICs and shorter speaker cable?

  7. #37
    Join Date: Jan 2009

    Location: Essex

    Posts: 31,850
    I'm openingabottleofwine.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bigman80 View Post
    Slightly off topic, would you prefer longer speaker cable and shorter ICs or longer ICs and shorter speaker cable?
    The latter, provided the preamp and power amplifier are true balanced designs, so one can use balanced line interconnects between the two.
    Barry

  8. #38
    Bigman80 Guest

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    Quote Originally Posted by Barry View Post
    The latter, provided the preamp and power amplifier are true balanced designs, so one can use balanced line interconnects between the two.
    I see.

  9. #39
    Join Date: Oct 2016

    Location: Hampshire

    Posts: 306
    I'm Mel.

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    Chord's view on speaker cable length's:

    The resistance of a speaker cable can have an effect on performance and the longer the length the greater the resistance. However in a typical hi-fi, a cable as discreet as Chord Leyline can be used in length of over 15 metres before sound quality is directly effected by the length of the cable.

    There is an obvious logic in keeping the lengths of speaker cable used in the hi-fi system the same. The vast majority of pairs of speaker cable that we supply are of equal lengths. Increasingly though, people are using odd lengths of speaker cable in a system. This is something that we researched quite carefully. What we found was that a difference in length of not more than 40% worked pretty well. So a 5m/3m pair, 7m/4m pair and a 10m/6m pair were good. There are a couple of important points here though. Whilst the vast majority of amplifiers will be completely happy with a different length pair of speaker cables, some amplifiers use the speaker cable as part of the circuitry and in this case, cable lengths should be kept the same. Before using different lengths of speaker cable, it is important to check with the manufacturer of the amplifier.

    Ref: https://www.chord.co.uk/speaker-cable-guide/

    Mel

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