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( different) speaker cable lenght

fred sonnen

fred sonnen

pfm Member
hallo

To connect my first speaker to the amplifiers I need 5m cables.
My second speaker is standing beside my HiFi electronic. Today I use also 5m cables.

Because of adding a third amplifier to my stereo ( going full active) I am thinking about to change the speaker cables.
Do I have to buy / build two times 5m cables or is it "allowed" to have 5m and 2m cables?

What is your opinion?

regards
F.S.
 
My opinion is that it doesn't really matter.
Although I've always used equal lengths that's mainly so that I have the flexibility to move speakers in the future and not to maybe have to fork out for more cable then.

I am careful with the excess cable - I believe the thing to do is to fold it into figure-of-8 rather than coiling it. To be frank I'm not convinced that makes a difference either !
 
I would ask myself - can I hear a difference between different cables? If the answer is no, then don't worry about lengths. If yes, then keep them the same length.
And coiling can increase inductance, which may or may not affect the sound.
 
I have run two different lengths for years, 1m different, and lost not a moments peace. Subsequent replacement tickled my OCD curiosity so I flashed out for the extra metre.

If you amp is stable with very short lengths then give it a go.

What is your amp, not that wonderful Naim stuff that everyone admires is it?
 
chrisletts said:
I am careful with the excess cable - I believe the thing to do is to fold it into figure-of-8 rather than coiling it. To be frank I'm not convinced that makes a difference either !
Click to expand...
Irrelevant for a paired cable as the magnetic fields for go and return cancel.

The reason you should not coil mains cable is heating, the rating of wire assumes that it is in free space, not stacked up against more of itself. Again not significant for speaker cables
 
assuming an electrical signal travels at around 75% the speed of light in copper wire ...

300,000,00 m/s x 0.75 = 225,000,000 m/s in copper wire

that's the equivalent of one of your ears being 0.000001 mm nearer one speaker than the other. I couldn't be arsed to do the exact calculation but all you need to know is that you won't be able to tell the difference.
 
I'm not sure its anything to do with the speed of the signal, its the load on the L/R chanel of the amp.

Surely 2m of nice thick cable will present a diffrent load than 10m of the same. IMO this is about the only thing that matters WRT speaker cables.
 
For the short lengths of cable we are discussing its just not worth bothering about. Do you realise that as the temperature of the speaker voice coils rises the electrical resistance will also increase? This increase in resistance will be of the order of Ohms and that will completely swamp the miniscule difference in the resistance of different length cables.

As a side effect as the voice coils heat up the effect of the crossovers changes and you'll get less output. So these effects have to be considered in loudspeaker design.

I do however use equal lengths purely for the convenience of moving my speakers around the room - they are on castors.

Cheers,

DV
 
gauge 14 copper wire has a resistance of 2.5 ohm per 1000 feet so 0.0025 ohm per foot, so 10 feet (3m) more cable will have an extra 0.025 ohm resistance which isn't something to worry about and pales into insignificance when you consider the contact resistance of the plugs and connectors and crossovers.
 
My opinion is that it does matter. Quite a lot in fact. I'm not a technician, but I have two ears, one on each side of my head.
 
Klyde said:
My opinion is that it does matter. Quite a lot in fact. I'm not a technician, but I have two ears, one on each side of my head.
Click to expand...
You might get a shock if you measured your speakers left and right. Pair matching is lucky to be within 1db, far more than a domestic speaker cable length will do
 
I use and have used different lengths of QED speaker cable in my lounge system - 7m and 9m - with quite a few different speaker and amp combos. Never heard or sensed any issues at all
 
I'm possible to hear the nanosecond delay of unequal lengths . Just turn on two lights on the same part of your main and see if you can detect one coming on first ...
 
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