Speaker cable: do they have to be same length?

[phydeau]

Hi all,

I'm very new to all of this, but have greatly appreciated the accumulated wisdom in this forum. I don't have any system in my sig, as I'm playing about with different combinations (ex demo or 2nd hand), the idea is to sell on items that don't work for me. Currently I have a NAD C515BEE, atlas interconnects, Pioneer N50 and Rega RS1's, which all sounds very agreeable.

I've also been experimenting with the layout of my living room, and the best layout is to have the Hi Fi just to the side of my listening chair, as there is no room to have it between the speakers (very awkward room). This means the cable run to one speaker is some 3m longer than the other, keeping it out of teh way. Is it important to have both speaker cables the same length, or will it work with with unequal lengths?

Thanks

 

[RobinKidderminster]

3m fine. 15m maybe some small concern. IMO

 

[DocG]

3m fine. 15m maybe some small concern. IMO

+1. As a student, my speakers had a cable of 1 and 7 m respectively. I didn't do any measurements (obviously), but the result never bothered me soundwise.

 

[Crossie]

IMHO it will be fine, not a problem.

 

[andyjm]

Hi all,

I'm very new to all of this, but have greatly appreciated the accumulated wisdom in this forum. I don't have any system in my sig, as I'm playing about with different combinations (ex demo or 2nd hand), the idea is to sell on items that don't work for me. Currently I have a NAD C515BEE, atlas interconnects, Pioneer N50 and Rega RS1's, which all sounds very agreeable.

I've also been experimenting with the layout of my living room, and the best layout is to have the Hi Fi just to the side of my listening chair, as there is no room to have it between the speakers (very awkward room). This means the cable run to one speaker is some 3m longer than the other, keeping it out of teh way. Is it important to have both speaker cables the same length, or will it work with with unequal lengths?

Thanks

Phydeau, there is a 'cult of the speaker cable' which would suggest that different brands of cables make a significant difference. Arguably, if a cable makes a difference, twice the length of cable will make twice the difference. So if you are a cultist, then I would have thought that matching cable lengths was a basic requirement.

On the other hand, if you take an engineering approach, the main driver of cable performance for a hifi set up is resistance. Long runs of thin cable are generally a bad idea as they have (relatively) high resistance. Shortish runs of decently thick cable (2.5mmsq is a good start - ignore the number of strands, it is the cross sectional area that counts) will be OK. In your case, 3M of 2.5mmsq cable mismatch will be inaudible.

Good luck.

 

[steve_1979]

Speaker cable: do they have to be same length?

If it's only a few metres difference in length you've got no worries.

I've used cables that had about 7 metres difference in length before now and it didn't make any difference to the sound.

 

[phydeau]

Thanks for the feedback.

I'd gone and got some Van Damme 'chunky' (Shogun?) speaker wire from Maplin (on offer), but I'd got the length needed for my old room layout. The length will be sufficient with the revised layout only if I make one cable run shorter than the other.

I was wanting to check before I got the snippers out: no going back........

 

[BigH]

Should be alright with your amp. just don't try it on older Naim amps.