Phono cable length

[wee tee cee]

Managed to get some of the belkin speaker cable today but had no idea it was so bloody thick.I run my speaker cable through the cellar and there is no way I can drill holes in the floor needed to accommodate these buggers.
I can however locate two monoblocks behind the problem speaker,the problem being I would have to run 4m phono leads to it....should the phono leads be equal length OR could I get away with 4m on one side and 1m on the other.
Regards Tony.

[Dingdong]

Convention would say to keep them at equal length. I would do this.

However the propagation delay of an audio signal over the difference in lengths would be very small as to be very difficult to detect imho.

[sq225917]

its miliseconds per kilometer

[wee tee cee]

Ive e mailed mark grant asking how much extending my bi-amp cables would spring me.....

[DSJR]

If the preamp is happy with this, I see no harm and probably only benefit in keeping the speaker wires as short as possible, and pre to power of 4m isn't an issue really as long as the capacitance s low I think - done it myself and the pre to power cables (AVI and Croft pre to Quad 405-2 [phono's each end]) were several meters each I remember. No hum or radio breakthtrough, although the old Croft design wasn't too happy I remember - the AVI was designed for just this purpose...

[wee tee cee]

Iam going to extend one side to 4m and see how I get on.Mark grant has also suggested upgrading the plugs at the power amp ends effectively upgrading to a 1500 spec interconnect.He intimated that he will offer the higher spec bi-amp cable on his sight shortly.
Must admit the bi-amp cables are beautifully made and well worth the investment if you are faffing about with splitters.Looking forward to installing the new wires Im sure they will sound even better than the standard ones.
Regards Tony.

[wee tee cee]

I've had the upgraded bi amp cables in for a few days.I would be lying if I said I could hear anything untoward with the different lengths.The upgraded plugs appear to benefit the frequency extremes.The bass in particular has extended.They will take a good few more hours to settle down but its safe to say the upgraded plugs are well worth the money...wonder what they'd be like with wtb silver plugs?

[Barry]

Electrically it is always better to try to minimise speaker cable length, even if it is at the expense of long and unequal cable lengths between preamp and power amps.

This is because the electrical resistance and reactance of the speaker cable appears in series with the output impedance of the power amplifier, thus reducing the damping factor of the amplifier.

Don’t worry about the unequal cable lengths you propose to use. Typically the propagation velocity of a coaxial cable, filled with a foam dielectric, will be about 0.2 metres / nanosecond, or 1 kilometre / 5 microseconds. So for your cable length difference of 3 metres, this corresponds to a propagation delay of 15ns, or a phase difference of 0.005º at 1KHz and 0.054º at 10KHz.

Any coaxial cable of reasonable capacitance per unit length will be fine for most preamplifiers, having sensibly low output impedance.

[jon1]

I've had the upgraded bi amp cables in for a few days.I would be lying if I said I could hear anything untoward with the different lengths.The upgraded plugs appear to benefit the frequency extremes.The bass in particular has extended.They will take a good few more hours to settle down but its safe to say the upgraded plugs are well worth the money...wonder what they'd be like with wtb silver plugs?





Even better still i have all WBt 110 ag and good connector does make a difference:eyebrows:



jon

[DSJR]

Re post 8 -

.. and think of the MASSIVE phase changes in a typical speaker crossover as well :)

[Reid Malenfant]

Get your speakers more than 1/100th of a mm difference between left & right speakers & your ears & you'll make more phase difference than even 100M of cable assuming they were spot on & your head was clamped so you couldn't move it :eyebrows:

3M of cable isn't even worth fussing over capacitance wise either ;)

[wee tee cee]

The plug difference has surprised me-mark grants system of trade in really lets you progress as time and funds allow.
I will get my tellurium black re-terminated into 2m lengths when funds allow...