Speaker cable lengths?

[Mullardman]

Coiled? !!!!!!!!
Good grief man.. you've introduced a massive inductor to your system.

What's worse, is you've put it under a speaker, where it's bound to be exerting a negative influence on both crossovers and drive unit voice coils.

It will also obviously be heating up, which will not only affect the amenity of your listening environment, but will increase the impedance of the cable.
So now you've created inductance and impedance above mean. Taken together with the inherent capacitance of the cable you have now introduced an extra filter...

Surely you can hear it?

Remove the offending article from under the speaker and carefuly fold (not coil) it. Ideally introduce short folds at various points along the length of the cable to minimise the disatrous effects outlined above.

With luck will not have caused permanent damage to your system.

Coiled indeed....

Mull

 

[Blzebub]

One of my speaker cables, actually interconnects but whatevs, is 400 metres longer than the other. Calculate the phase shift.

 

[ex brickie]

I've been wondering about the unequal lengths ever since I bought Townsend Isolda speaker cable and it was so expensive I could afford equal runs. Sounds good enough to me - but you can bet your life that if you ever wanted to sell speaker cable onwards there would be a lot of people put off the unequal lengths

 

[Thighsofsteel]

The only reason I can think of to keeping the lengths the same, is if you want to sell them on at some point, it's easier to sell a matched pair.

 

[batleys]

Mike -B indeed.. It is an interesting mind game to think of two very unequal lengths of speaker cable and then add the missing inductance and capacitance to the crossover of the shorter cable length speaker ... Should they not then perform equivalently?

BTW +1 for folding excess speaker cable rather than coiling....
Simon

 

[HiFiman]

Even my NACA5 which are equal 4mtr lengths, one is probably a couple of millimetre longer then the other as is all other Naim NACA5 cables out there on other Naim systems.

 

[MikeMA]

Coiled? !!!!!!!!
Good grief man.. you've introduced a massive inductor to your system.

What's worse, is you've put it under a speaker, where it's bound to be exerting a negative influence on both crossovers and drive unit voice coils.

It will also obviously be heating up, which will not only affect the amenity of your listening environment, but will increase the impedance of the cable.
So now you've created inductance and impedance above mean. Taken together with the inherent capacitance of the cable you have now introduced an extra filter...

Surely you can hear it?

Remove the offending article from under the speaker and carefuly fold (not coil) it. Ideally introduce short folds at various points along the length of the cable to minimise the disatrous effects outlined above.

With luck will not have caused permanent damage to your system.

Coiled indeed....

Mull

The speaker cable coil will be effectively bifilar wound, so minimal inductance. But I think you know that, and you are just on a wind up.

 

[Mike Reed]

Two apparently conflicting synopses (Martin Clark and Mullardman); how can that be on PFM ? .

Reasons for having/keeping equal lengths so far have omitted one important one (to me, anyway). That of changing your speaker positions in the future, or even amplifier position.

I have been caught out by this (when I moved rooms rather than house) and had to buy new cables. Why is it that selling unequal lengths is more difficult, apart from the sonic thing? Possibly because unequal lengths need much more of a bespoke kit position for the buyer.

 

[zippy]

TBH,
I think this is a very silly question from a forum member thats been a multiple box and system changer for years.
Always get two lengths the same.
You will always have a hard time selling on if not both the same length.

AND.. As well as buying equal lengths, I always buy a bit longer than I actually need on the basis that sometime in the future the bug will bite, I'll want to move the speakers around and not have to buy new cable.

 

[*PING*]

If you are going to keep the cables then different lengths are fine, I run 2.5 and 4.5 m sides with no problem.
But as Barry says if you are a serial box swapper selling on will be difficult

Bi-wire both, then sell the two pairs

Post suggesting odd lengths and bi-wiring in one post - somewhere there is someone choking on the tea they were sipping from their genuine issue Naim cup.

 

[schneller]

Its not the length that Naim is sensitive to, its the inductance.
Naim recommend 3.5m (min) of NACA5 with its 1uH/m to get 3.5uH per side.
If whatever cable you use has (e.g.) 0.5uH/m, then you need 7m per side (min)

That said, I have not heard anything detrimental with modern Naims, my SN seems to be happy with any cable (not considering SQ) . But my old Nait-2 did not like it with 6m of Kimber 8PR, so there might be some truth in it all.

Would you happen to have the inductance info for Tellurium Q Black speaker cable? Am looking to get a 3M pair to use with my NAIM IA. Thanks.

 

[Lee T]

Recently contacted Naim regarding speaker cable as I was thinking of dipping my foot in, I explained my cable was a 2m pair of Chord, reply was, perfect, we often use chord with our naim amplification & the length is fine so why do most people in the know regarding naim suggest this 3.5m stuff when Naim obviously don't., they do produce the stuff after all, I imagine they would know best when it comes to their own equipment.

 

[Mike-B]

Would you happen to have the inductance info for Tellurium Q Black speaker cable? Am looking to get a 3M pair to use with my NAIM IA. Thanks.

Tellurium publish nothing, no data, no spec, no nuffink
But cable construction such as spacing or twisting has well understood effects on L & C, & the TQ wide spacing means the inductance is high & probably the same or higher than Naim's NACA5

 

[schneller]

Tellurium publish nothing, no data, no spec, no nuffink
But cable construction such as spacing or twisting has well understood effects on L & C, & the TQ wide spacing means the inductance is high & probably the same or higher than Naim's NACA5

Yeah. I noticed a lack of info too. It's just snake oil after all!

How could I phrase the question to them if I sent them an email?

What is the inductance (per meter) of your Black Q cable given in uH/m?

 

[davidsrsb]

Tellurium publish nothing, no data, no spec, no nuffink
But cable construction such as spacing or twisting has well understood effects on L & C, & the TQ wide spacing means the inductance is high & probably the same or higher than Naim's NACA5

It's easy enough to calculate by measuring the conductor diameter and spacing. Capacitance is a bit harder as the dielectric construction/material is important

 

[Arkless Electronics]

It's all bollocks at audio frequencies! Make it thick and use the shortest length practical... That's all that matters.

 

[Lee T]

It's all bollocks at audio frequencies! Make it thick and use the shortest length practical... That's all that matters.

I also would have thought shorter is better, it's why I made my last post regarding Naim amps, they obviously think 2m is fine.

Where does the information come from regarding the 3.5m minimum length for Naim amps?

 

[Werner]

Early Naim amps relied on a minimum amount of inductance externally applied for maintaining stability. This required inductance translated to 3.5 meters of Naim's own speaker cable at that time.

I would be very surprised if later-day Naim amps hadn't evolved enough to drop this hairshirt practice.

 

[Lee T]

Early Naim amps relied on a minimum amount of inductance externally applied for maintaining stability. This required inductance translated to 3.5 meters of Naim's own speaker cable at that time.

I would be very surprised if later-day Naim amps hadn't evolved enough to drop this hairshirt practice.

Probably why I was told by Naim that 2m is fine with their nait 5i

 

[Mike42]

So if you can have differing lengths of cable (cos it makes no audible difference), then surely it follows that you can have differing gauges and construction. If this also makes no difference then cables per se make no difference, right?