advertisement


This old nut-Long interconnects or Long speaker cable.

S

Stilgoe1972

pfm Member
Due to a system equipment change around which involves an Audio research (ls27) & bryston 7bsst Im tossing up whether to go 11 metre fat as f.... speaker cables or 10m balanced leads from pre to power.
Usually the balanced cables wouldn't be a problem.The output impedence of the ARC is 700ohm but may vary considerably and the input impedence of the bryston is 20kohm and may also vary considerably.Combined with 10 metres of vandamme quad core balanced cable could I be "damaging" the audio signal?
I have contacted both AR and bryston about the variance in the input and output impedence over frequency but they haven't replied. I have found no measurements on the net either.
On paper it fits the 10:1 ratio easily but in reality with the variances am I low pass filtering with the additional 1400fh of capacitance of these cables.
This has led me to think, well just use big old fat as hell speaker cable (mogami 3104) and keep my interconnects all 1 metre.
Any thoughts?
Any body use 10m speaker lengths?
Speakers are PMC IB2 with minimal impedence of 3.5ohm if that matters.
Cheers for any advice:)
 
Get those bad boys activated and solve the problem properly and make them sound as good as they should.
 
Stilgoe1972 said:
Due to a system equipment change around which involves an Audio research (ls27) & bryston 7bsst Im tossing up whether to go 11 metre fat as f.... speaker cables or 10 balanced leads from pre to power.
Usually the balanced cables wouldn't be a problem.The output impedence of the ARC is 700ohm but may vary considerably and the input impedence of the bryston is 20kohm and may also vary considerably.Combined with 10 metres of vandamme quad core balanced cable could I be "damaging" the audio signal?
I have contacted both AR and bryston about the variance in the input and output impedence over frequency but they haven't replied. I have found no measurements on the net either.
On paper it fits the 10:1 ratio easily but in reality with the variances am I low pass filtering with the additional 1400fh of capacitance of these cables.
This has led me to think, well just use big old fat as hell speaker cable (mogami 3104) and keep my interconnects all 1 metre.
Any thoughts?
Any body use 10m speaker lengths?
Speakers are PMC IB2 with minimal impedence of 3.5ohm if that matters.
Cheers for any advice:)
Click to expand...

I doubt if any modern amp varies it's input impedance much. Speaker impedance does vary a lot so you get a slight dip where its low. Since this is just above the bass, it just means a bouncier bass. 2nd order bass xovers behave better with a bit of series resistance in the wire. Why not get some thin bell wire and try it on your speakers in their present position to show the effect of a long cable?
 
Thanks Arthur, I think going active would cost beyond the speaker cable or interconnect budget:) cheers a way.
Demotivated- cheers,but It's not so much the speaker impedence that I'm concerned about, its the possible impedence mismatch with the varying impedence of the pre and power causing problems with each other especially with that additional 10m of quad core van damme cable involved.
The pmc IB2 speaker minimum impedence is 3.5ohm, so an easy load for 7bsst even with 10m of speaker cable.
 
Missing "m". I am asking if the power amps would be effectively plugged into the same outlet(s) spur. Plugging into outlets on different spurs/rings causes noise in the interconnects (see the Biil Whitlock papers)
 
I bit the bullet a few years ago and put everything on the same wall.
Would still prefer the kit next to me as was, but any leads now would be incredibly long
 
davidsrsb said:
Missing "m". I am asking if the power amps would be effectively plugged into the same outlet(s) spur. Plugging into outlets on different spurs/rings causes noise in the interconnects (see the Biil Whitlock papers)
Click to expand...

Yes, they will be plugged into the same ring, which isn't a 'spur' . I'm not suffering from any noise in the interconnects as they are.

Bottom line, has anybody noticed changes going from 3 metre speaker cables to lots more - ie 11 or so in a normal system with non fancy speaker cables?

Thanks.
 
My regular "short, thin" speaker cables are about 6m/19ft, generic 70-something stranded stuff. My "long, thicker" ones are over 12m/40ft, about 100 strand, and I don't have any problems using either - or noticed much if any difference in sound.
 
I noticed quite a difference going from 3m (2.5mm thickness) per amp to 0.5m (4mm thickness) per amp. Most noticeable in the bass region, less interaction with the room / cleaner bass due to better control of the speaker cones I'd guess. Though those amps do have some crazy damping factor of 11000 according to its literature (Hypex NC400). Night and day in this case, but would ofcourse depend on your amp and whether its damping factor is having a significant effect on your speakers?
 
Signals travelling a longer distance must surely slow the music down (signal and listener and reader fatigue factor).

I can’t be serious.
:)
 
Stilgoe1972 said:
Hi DV,

Have you AB compared this scenario before?

How's them amps. You changed to small ones yet?:)
Click to expand...

In the early days speakers were 3 Ohms and were used with amps inside the case. Then there came the need for speakers remote to the amps like for example stage work/bands. A more expensive 15 Ohms speaker was developed to allow for this. Of course you could still drive a 3 Ohm over long cables but to do so required the use of line transformers at each end of the cable.

There are a number of reasons why its better if you can use short cables to the speakers maybe less so important today with solid state amps. You can research this on the web. So if you ask a generic Q should I use long speaker cables or long balanced connects then I would go with the latter. But there are special cases no? Like old Naim amps that were unstable if the speaker cable was too short! Talk about good amplifier design.

BTW I still have the 84Kg of amps as I'd have to spend £10K or so and I am informed for no gain in quality over what I already have. Seems a shocking waste of money.

Cheers,

DV
 
Darth Vader said:
In the early days speakers were 3 Ohms and were used with amps inside the case. Then there came the need for speakers remote to the amps like for example stage work/bands. A more expensive 15 Ohms speaker was developed to allow for this. Of course you could still drive a 3 Ohm over long cables but to do so required the use of line transformers at each end of the cable.

There are a number of reasons why its better if you can use short cables to the speakers maybe less so important today with solid state amps. You can research this on the web. So if you ask a generic Q should I use long speaker cables or long balanced connects then I would go with the latter. But there are special cases no? Like old Naim amps that were unstable if the speaker cable was too short! Talk about good amplifier design.

BTW I still have the 84Kg of amps as I'd have to spend £10K or so and I am informed for no gain in quality over what I already have. Seems a shocking waste of money.

Cheers,

DV
Click to expand...
Good for you DV, stick with them:)

On the cables front, it's more the impedance (pre & power) mismatch that's a bother which has led to even think about going single end.....YUk, as the impedences would match better.
 
Stilgoe1972 said:
Good for you DV, stick with them:)

On the cables front, it's more the impedance (pre & power) mismatch that's a bother which has led to even think about going single end.....YUk, as the impedences would match better.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't call that a mismatch low (700) into high (20k) is good. Even the spec for the pre-amp says a minimum of 20K. I wouldn't worry about it. I believe it is the standard way of connecting pro equipment although I think 600 ohm output is the norm and maybe why its suggested 20K as the minimum load.

Cheers,

DV
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top