Home cinema cable length advice

[Abbo1976]

Hi. I am looking at upgrading my home cinem and have a question on speaker cable lengths. The existing setup I have is an 'all-in-one' Sony system, so cables came with it.

The surround speakers are going to need approximately 8m each, and plan to keep these two lengths the same. My question is: Do the left, right and centre and sub all need to be 8m as well? ie Keeping all cable lengths identical.

Sorry if this is a daft question, but coming from a Hi-Fi background where keeping the same cable length for both speakers the same was very important, wanted to check before buying any new cable.

Thanks

 

[macdiddy]

this turns into another mass cable debate about whether cables should/or should not be the same length etc...*stop*

To answer your question in simple terms, your cable length's do not all have to be the same, if you don't need 8m for the left,right & centre then just find out what you do need and make sure that they are equal.

Hope this helps.

*music2*

 

[Abbo1976]

Thanks for your response, they do help. I also understand your comment about this turning in to a debate about cable lengths needing to be the same or not.

If I read your comments correctly, there should be no issue with using 8m each for the surround pair, and then say 3m each for the left, right and centre?

Cheers

Abbo

 

[Anderson]

Cable length doesn't matter.

 

[macdiddy]

my response wasn't that clear, I'm at work so I have to be quick while the boss isn't looking. *mail1*

 

[andyjm]

this turns into another mass cable debate about whether cables should/or should not be the same length etc...*stop*

To answer your question in simple terms, your cable length's do not all have to be the same, if you don't need 8m for the left,right & centre then just find out what you do need and make sure that they are equal.

Hope this helps.

*music2*

About the only thing that matters with speaker cables is resistance, and that is a function of thickness and length. As a general rule, you don't want to have vastly different lengths of cable on speakers that 'sound together' to produce an image. So, for the left, centre and right, having similar lengths is a good idea. Doesn't have to be exact, a metre or two here or there isn't going to be audible.

In a 5.1 setup, the rears are only filling in, and dont 'sound' with the fronts to produce a stereo image - quite often they are different speakers to the fronts anyway. Running much longer cables to the rears may alter their tonal balance slightly, but it wont be noticable.

 

[ellisdj]

started already - keeping them the same wont hurt if that whats you want to do.

But as already stated probably no need to run 8metres for your front 3 speakers if they dont need it. Its often advised short as possible with speaker cables but personally as already stated I keep the front L and R and C the same - difference or not it keeps my OCD for perfection under control.

Go with your gut and budget

 

[Abbo1976]

Thanks for everyones responses. Think I will go for the longer to the rears, and then the same length for the front three. This then got me thinking of another question, sorry!

Is it best to keep the same speaker cable throughout? ie for all speakers? Or as from what i am hearing the rears are only 'fill in' can use some less expensive cable (also if it's smaller will be easier to hide), and then use a better quality for the centre, left and right?

Thanks

 

[bigboss]

My home cinema is being set up currently. I'm only using how much cable I need. For home cinema use (where you're unlikely to use very long cables), length doesn't matter.

 

[bigboss]

Thanks for everyones responses.  Think I will go for the longer to the rears, and then the same length for the front three.  This then got me thinking of another question, sorry!

Is it best to keep the same speaker cable throughout?  ie for all speakers?  Or as from what i am hearing the rears are only 'fill in' can use some less expensive cable (also if it's smaller will be easier to hide), and then use a better quality for the centre, left and right?

Thanks

Don't start the debate again now! *fool*

 

[ellisdj]

In an ideal world all speakers will be tonally exact.
This does help with lots of things generally panning front back left to right and just 3d sound field.

In theory anything that helps that cant be a bad thing such as same speaker cable - cant hurt.

However i have never done it i have always had different for front 3 to back 2 so don't know for sure.