Speaker cable length

[Rait]

Hello. I have to to make or buy new speaker cables for new speaker position in room. Equipment are in left wall, but speakers in front. So i need for right speaker 6 meter cable and for left 2,5 meters. I know that speaker cables need to be in same lenght, but will it influent sound if L 6m and R 3m. By calculations right speaker will have 0,02 ohm higher impedance. Do anybody have find sound difference if using different cable lengths?

[Pharos]

I relatively blindly followed the 'advice to keep the lengths the same, and I am in a similar position to you with my needs.

But recently I have read that it is not an issue to have dissimilar lengths.

[Sherwood]

Performance aside, it is worth using equal lengths because we do not keep our hifi systems in the same place for life

Geoff

[Barry]

Before I used monoblock amplifiers located directly behind each speaker, my speaker cables were of dissimilar length - in fact, as in your situation, one was twice the length of the other.

No, the ohmic loss due the 0.02 Ohm won't make any audible difference in level (being -0.017dB for a nominal 10 Ohm load), but because this extra resistance adds to output impedance of your amplifier it could possibly affect the damping properties of the amplifier; that is the damping effect would be asymmetric. It depends on the output impedance of your amplifier as to the extent of this effect, but again I doubt whether you would notice any difference between the two channels.

[narabdela]

I know that speaker cables need to be in same lenght.

Sez who? It's the usual 'received wisdom' bollocks. You'd need platinum ears to discern any difference in sound and longer length disparity for the damping to be an issue.

[Bigman80]

Sez who? It's the usual 'received wisdom' bollocks. You'd need platinum ears to discern any difference in sound and longer length disparity for the damping to be an issue.Regardless of platinum ears or even Golden ears, the capacitance of a cable is directly affected by the length. Having one cable shorter than the other will then have differing capacitance which will affect the sound. By what degree is anyone's guess.

Personally, all of my cables are of equal lengths.

[walpurgis]

Personally, all of my cables are of equal lengths.

And all mine are matched to the last millimetre. Not that I think it makes much difference, but why not be fussy?

[Bigman80]

And all mine are matched to the last millimetre. Not that I think it makes much difference, but why not be fussy?Im a big believer in "Everything matters"

Sometimes the things we don't hear are making a big contribution to the things we do.

Personal opinion again.

[Stryder5]

I really don't think it's this simple Oli, having a bit of time to kill......lol, I had a brief scan of various papers on this, most went over my head, but it is a can of worms, and it appears types of cable configuration and material give variable conclusions.

I can't find any information between cable length equilibrium and straight length to various coil configurations versus unequal length speaker cable



Regardless of platinum ears or even Golden ears, the capacitance of a cable is directly affected by the length. Having one cable shorter than the other will then have differing capacitance which will affect the sound. By what degree is anyone's guess.

Personally, all of my cables are of equal lengths.

[Bigman80]

I really don't think it's this simple Oli, having a bit of time to kill......lol, I had a brief scan of various papers on this, most went over my head, but it is a can of worms, and it appears types of cable configuration and material give variable conclusions.

I can't find any information between cable length equilibrium and straight length to various coil configurations versus unequal length speaker cableGary, I know there's a plethora of conflicting information on this but I really believe the simplest principals keep us on the right path.

This is from the Cambridge website.

"Generally speaking, resistance starts to have an effect on the performance of a speaker when resistance is greater than 5% of the speaker’s impedance. Resistance is affected by two key aspects: wire length and the cross sectional area of the wire. The shorter the wire is, the less resistance it will have. It’s also important that the wire lengths to both speakers are the same to ensure they both have equal impedance values."

My cables have the minimum length necessary, the lowest capacity per foot and I think that makes the best cables. I'm happy to be wrong but my system suggests I'm on to something [emoji23]

[Stryder5]

Occam's razor :wave:

[Bigman80]

Occam's razor :wave:[emoji23] that applies to almost everything in HIFi

[Barry]

You say aiming for minimum cable length is desirable, and that is what Gary is wanting to do: but to do so the cables will be unequal in length. So if he uses two cables 6 meters long, how do you propose he looses the extra length? Coiling it up will increase the inductance (and it is inductance that is most relevent when it comes to speaker cables). A loose serpentine layout would be better.

[Stryder5]

[QUOTE=Barry;961093]You say aiming for minimum cable length is desirable, and that is what Gary is wanting to do: but to do so the cables will be unequal in length. So if he uses two cables 6 meters long, how do you propose he looses the extra length? Coiling it up will increase the inductance (and it is inductance that is most relevent when it comes to speaker cables). A loose serpentine layout would be better.[/QUOTE

This is true, my cable jumble is like a vipers nest, however I try to rearrange ALL of my cables, they always appear to be knitted into a sweater.

What effect on other more sensitive (?) cables like IC's or computer cables would 3 or 4 metres of coiled (however configured) speaker cable have.

I have a finite space between speakers and sources which, of course, is not ideal, but probably usual.

[struth]

In vast majority of cases it's going to be minimal at best. Good practice to keep it tidy tho. My Amps are on top of speakers so cable is just about a metre and quarter if memory serves. Gives me a little leeway. Use longer interconnects tho

[Bigman80]

You say aiming for minimum cable length is desirable, and that is what Gary is wanting to do: but to do so the cables will be unequal in length. So if he uses two cables 6 meters long, how do you propose he looses the extra length? Coiling it up will increase the inductance (and it is inductance that is most relevent when it comes to speaker cables). A loose serpentine layout would be better.Well I have one speaker further away from the amps than the other. I simply have a loose weave of cable as to minimise inductance. I also know that this isn't practical for everyone and was talking in terms of "ideally....."

[walpurgis]

I like at least a metre longer speaker cables than the minimum length to reach the speakers. It makes life easier.

[Stryder5]

Forgot, I'm bi-wiring so problem twice as normal, I guess.

Don't want to start a discussion on bi-wiring, so can we stay on topic please.

[Yomanze]

If you want to cure your OCD and niggling doubts, then keep them the same length.

Otherwise, don't worry about it, at all.

Some people seem to have 'platinum' ears that can hear the difference between equal and unequal cables, but for me this is expectation bias & that 'niggling doubt' creeping in.

[wee tee cee]

I run 6m one side under a fire place and 2m the other side.

I was lucky to be able to clarify with Colin Wonfor if it would make any difference-its his amps and cables i run....he advised it was not an issue.

Might be an idea to contact your amp manufacturer, just in case.

If memory serves naca5 and naim amps have an issue with load....

[Stryder5]

If you want to cure your OCD and niggling doubts, then keep them the same length.

Otherwise, don't worry about it, at all.

Some people seem to have 'platinum' ears that can hear the difference between equal and unequal cables, but for me this is expectation bias & that 'niggling doubt' creeping in.

Since when is asking a question OCD?

You are welcome to your views, but they are just that!

You're comments don't add anything to the post.

[Yomanze]

Since when is asking a question OCD?

You are welcome to your views, but they are just that!

You're comments don't add anything to the post.

This is a forum, for posting views, of which mine are on topic. As mentioned, with regard to differing speaker cable lengths, there is nothing to worry about from a technical perspective unless you are running ridiculously high capacitance cables, and even then, it’s the amps that will dictate any differences.

[Scooby]

Since when is asking a question OCD?

You are welcome to your views, but they are just that!

You're comments don't add anything to the post.

I didn't take Neil's post as offensive. I guess it depends on how anyone takes the word "you". I didn't see it as directed at Stryder, but more a general "you".

[Stryder5]

This is a forum, for posting views, of which mine are on topic. As mentioned, with regard to differing speaker cable lengths, there is nothing to worry about from a technical perspective unless you are running ridiculously high capacitance cables, and even then, it’s the amps that will dictate any differences.

Your view is that someone has OCD, not constructive.

[Bigman80]

I run 6m one side under a fire place and 2m the other side.

I was lucky to be able to clarify with Colin Wonfor if it would make any difference-its his amps and cables i run....he advised it was not an issue.

Might be an idea to contact your amp manufacturer, just in case.

If memory serves naca5 and naim amps have an issue with load....They do Tony, amongst other makes too. Colin is definitely going to know if it would have an effect on his design. Good call.

Personally, whether niggling doubt, OCD, Perfectionist etc, i always have as much symmetry as possible.

Strange how we buy interconnects with equal lengths, our speakers are an equal distance away from us and each other, the best listening position is in the centre, but "symmetry making a difference" is an alien idea when using speaker cable.

I could be wrong but thems the rules in my house.

I love this hobby. [emoji39]

[Macca]

Your view is that someone has OCD, not constructive.

It was only a joke. And Neil makes a fair point, no human being alive would hear the difference, especially as there won't be any difference.

Having said that I try to avoid unequal runs if I can. Must be my OCD ;)

[Stryder5]

It's interesting that people find having a mental disorder humorous.

[scotty38]

It's interesting that people find having a mental disorder humorous.

How you can construe any of the posts on this thread as anything like a comment, let alone any sort of humour, about mental illness is, quite frankly, ridiculous.

[Stryder5]

How you can construe any of the posts on this thread as anything like a comment, let alone any sort of humour, about mental illness is, quite frankly, ridiculous.

It was only a joke. And Neil makes a fair point, no human being alive would hear the difference, especially as there won't be any difference.

Having said that I try to avoid unequal runs if I can. Must be my OCD

[scotty38]

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!

[Stryder5]

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!

[Barry]

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! :rolleyes:

[smangus]

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

[Barry]

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

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.

[smangus]

He sounds like my kinda guy :D

[Bigman80]

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! :rolleyes:Slightly off topic, would you prefer longer speaker cable and shorter ICs or longer ICs and shorter speaker cable?

[Barry]

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.

[Bigman80]

The latter, provided the preamp and power amplifier are true balanced designs, so one can use balanced line interconnects between the two.I see. [emoji3]

[Cycleallday]

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