Does Front L & R Surround Speaker Cable have to be the same length?

[admin_exported]

Im currently changing the layout of my poor shaped living room so that all AV equipment is next to the douvble socked and tv cables etc which come in from outside. The TV is situated about 4.4m across the room to the right of the fire place.

ive included the layout of my room below

_____________________________
AV --FirePace-- -C--TV---FR |

SL SOFAAAAAAAAA SR
BL---------------------------------BR
Stairs
----------------------------------------

I dont want to effect performance buying 1 cable shorter than the other, my SR is currently on a much longer run than my SL. But this doesnt matter as much but I think it would cause issues when playing music via FR/L if one cables was slightly long than the other?

Whats everyones opinion on this?

 

[Ronald Archiebald]

Craigtumilty,

No. We don't all have a perfect square room.

Ronald

 

[professorhat]

I do tend to keep my speaker cables the same length, even the rears i.e. the rears are the same length as each other and the front lengths are the same length as each other. Without this, different lengths of speaker cable will mean that the amplifier will be driving a different electrical load on each channel. However, this is unlikely to cause any damage as long as the lengths aren't vastly different. The main reason I do it is for future flexibility. It is inevitable that, at some point, I will want to rearrange furniture in my room and, if the cable is tailored to exactly the layout it is now, I'll need to be purchasing more cable when I do this. With the lengths all the same, I get a lot more flexibility in moving things around, usually negating the need to purchase another cable.

As for audible differences, I can't see that being an issue, again, so long as the cables aren't vastly different lengths. In theory, the differing impedance / resistance caused by differing lengths will affect the sound, but as to whether it's noticeable is entirely different. I know plenty of people run different lengths and have no issues with this.

See this old thread for more discussion on this.

 

[Anonymous]

For a tested opinion on this subject see link

http://www.audioholics.com/education/cables/speaker-cable-length-differences-do-they-matter

I asked this question to Yamaha a while back due to concerns of damaging amp due to diferent lenghts , here's the reply

Dear Mr Morrison,
Thanks for your reply.

You cannot damage the amplifier using different lengths of cable.
The only difference/effects that can be experienced by cables are:
Difference between L & R cable length can sometimes cause phase shift, so it is better to make sure front L & R and surround L & R are similar lengths with each other and very long or thin cable can cause difference in power output, but as stated above cable difference will not damage the amplifier.
Hope this helps.

Many thanks

Yamaha Technical A/V

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies

I think i might get 2m and 5m 3m cables for the FR C and FR and see how things perform