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Thread: Brainstorm for speaker cable length

  1. #11
    Join Date: Sep 2014

    Location: brighton uk.

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    I'm jamie.

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    ive got an un equal distance between speakers and amp,i just coil up the one closest to the amp,i cant hear sod all difference
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  2. #12
    Join Date: Apr 2015

    Location: Central Virginia

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    I'm Russell.

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    While it won’t make any difference electrically, it can seriously affect the resale value of your speaker cables.

    If you decide to upgrade one day, and want to sell your old set, if they aren’t the same length, you’ll take a beating on the price. Keeping them the same length sure doesn’t hurt! And, it will maintain its value.

    Russell

  3. #13
    Join Date: Sep 2018

    Location: Estonia

    Posts: 94
    I'm Veiko.

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    Quote Originally Posted by alphaGT View Post
    While it won’t make any difference electrically, it can seriously affect the resale value of your speaker cables.

    If you decide to upgrade one day, and want to sell your old set, if they aren’t the same length, you’ll take a beating on the price. Keeping them the same length sure doesn’t hurt! And, it will maintain its value.

    Russell
    Thanks. Good point. However there is a temptation to pay less money now.

  4. #14
    Join Date: Feb 2013

    Location: scotland

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    I'm alan.

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    Quote Originally Posted by karma67 View Post
    ive got an un equal distance between speakers and amp,i just coil up the one closest to the amp,i cant hear sod all difference
    +1

    I keep em the same length.

  5. #15
    Join Date: Dec 2008

    Location: East Riding of Yorkshire these days

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    I'm Shaun.

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    Back around 1994 I was using twin and earth as speaker cables. I had the same problem, I had one speaker closer than the other so used unequal lengths. Stupid idea that completely trashed the sound and the stereo effect. I went back to using 'real' speaker cables.


  6. #16
    Join Date: Nov 2018

    Location: Grimsby

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    I'm David.

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    If this is the stuff you are buying then resale value is not going to be much of a hardship since plugs can be re-used on any upgrade cable. Just go for the correct lengths you need, keeping things neat and tidy.

    https://www.audiovisualonline.co.uk/...636fbd1af81909

  7. #17
    Join Date: Jun 2014

    Location: Chorley Lancs

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    I'm Steve.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bigman80 View Post
    It's the resistance and capacitance that could prove to be a problem.

    The longer the cable, the higher the capacitance which could cause a higher roll off on one channel creating a an imbalance that way.

    There are other things too but as you say, it will probably be OK but I'd never recommend unequal lengths. Because I sell cables lmao
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  8. #18
    Join Date: Jan 2009

    Location: Essex

    Posts: 31,856
    I'm openingabottleofwine.

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    There is a lot of misunderstanding when it comes to using unequal lengths of speaker cable.

    In the past I have used unequal lengths of cable between my amplifier and the speakers (Quad 57 electrostatics). The difference in length was significant: 6m to the right hand speaker and 16m to the left hand speaker. As far as cable loop resistance was concerned, there was a 2:1 factor, and as far as the speaker is concerned, the cable loop resistance adds to the output impedance of the amplifier, so affects the damping factor. With the Quad ELS, the inertial mass of the diaphragms is so low there is very little damping to do, and although this is a different matter when it comes to conventional cone speaker drivers, I didn't notice any ill effects at all with the Quads.

    The physical time delay is insignificant. Owing to the high speed of propagation through the cable (probably 0.7x the speed of light, so less than 5ns per metre), and given the speed of sound of 340m/s, this is equivalent to a difference in speaker positioning of less than 2 micron/metre!). Likewise the difference in capacitance and loop inductance due to the difference in speaker cable length is insignificant when compared with those of the components of the speaker's crossover network.

    So too the ohmic loss difference due to the unequal length. In my case, the 10m difference in cable length translated to a 0.1 Ohm change in cable loop resistance - which in turn, with a typical amplifier output impedance of 0.01Ohm and a speaker impedance of 10Ohm, lead to a difference in volume level of 0.086dB. Totally unnoticeable.

    If however for piece of mind, you want the cables to be of equal physical length, try to coil up the longer length in a loose serpentine (boustrophedon) fashion, so as to minimise the increase in inductance.
    Barry

  9. #19
    Join Date: Apr 2015

    Location: Central Virginia

    Posts: 1,736
    I'm Russell.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Barry View Post
    There is a lot of misunderstanding when it comes to using unequal lengths of speaker cable.

    In the past I have used unequal lengths of cable between my amplifier and the speakers (Quad 57 electrostatics). The difference in length was significant: 6m to the right hand speaker and 16m to the left hand speaker. As far as cable loop resistance was concerned, there was a 2:1 factor, and as far as the speaker is concerned, the cable loop resistance adds to the output impedance of the amplifier, so affects the damping factor. With the Quad ELS, the inertial mass of the diaphragms is so low there is very little damping to do, and although this is a different matter when it comes to conventional cone speaker drivers, I didn't notice any ill effects at all with the Quads.

    The physical time delay is insignificant. Owing to the high speed of propagation through the cable (probably 0.7x the speed of light, so less than 5ns per metre), and given the speed of sound of 340m/s, this is equivalent to a difference in speaker positioning of less than 2 micron/metre!). Likewise the difference in capacitance and loop inductance due to the difference in speaker cable length is insignificant when compared with those of the components of the speaker's crossover network.

    So too the ohmic loss difference due to the unequal length. In my case, the 10m difference in cable length translated to a 0.1 Ohm change in cable loop resistance - which in turn, with a typical amplifier output impedance of 0.01Ohm and a speaker impedance of 10Ohm, lead to a difference in volume level of 0.086dB. Totally unnoticeable.

    If however for piece of mind, you want the cables to be of equal physical length, try to coil up the longer length in a loose serpentine (boustrophedon) fashion, so as to minimise the increase in inductance.
    I’ve learned a new word! Seriously, I had to look up ‘Boustrophedon’, a new one on me!

    And the rest of your post was not lost on me either, that’s good stuff to know. I will immediately undo the coil of wire behind my right speaker and bundle it up correctly.

    Russell

  10. #20
    Join Date: Sep 2018

    Location: Estonia

    Posts: 94
    I'm Veiko.

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    Great input, Barry.
    I am still waiting for my Rocket11 cable, but have been conducting tests during the time.

    I used 1 m and 3.8 m cables.
    Only used one channel at the time so the music would be exactly the same
    (connecting one speaker to leftA, another to leftB), balance 100% to left and listening one at a time.
    No difference were detected, so I wont have to coil my cable boustrophedon-style,
    will just use different lengths.

    What I have discovered - out of the box the amp sounded so bad, that I needed to use "tone control",
    but as for now, I have noticed there is no such need. So I guess it burned in.

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