Speaker Cable - Equal lengths?

[admin_exported]

Hi,

Expecting delivery of my new speakers this week and due to the placement of them in relation to the Amp I have a question.

One speaker will be about 50cms away from the Amp while the other will probably need 5m or so of cable to reach. In the past I've always tried to use equal lengths of speaker cable as this appeared to be common wisdom....however, I am reluctant to have 5metres of cable coiled up between the Amp and the closest speaker.

Does it really make much difference?

Thanks,

Mark

 

[Anonymous]

Should have done a search first...sorry...I can see this topic has been discussed/argued many times...I think I'll go with 1m and 5m can't see it making much difference.

 

[professorhat]

Seems sensible to me.

 

[Anonymous]

It depends on the cable and speaker impedance.

If the speaker is 8 ohm and the cable's impedance is very low then the difference in volume between the two speaker won't be audibile.

Even though, todays' cables have ridiculously low impedance, so 4 meters shouldn't really make a difference.

However, if it does, I'd recommend not fixing it using the balance on the amp, but putting cable with the same length.

 

[Alantiggger]

Well I'd imagine that whether you have 1m or 5m ... you will not be able to tell the difference ? You could do both and let your findings be known ? ... if don't mind that is 🙂 (could be interesting)

 

[Anonymous]

Only difference it will make is the price you'll get for them on ebay when you sell them and upgrade to better cable!

 

[aliEnRIK]

Chord cables have stated they have witnessed no adverse effects at all from using different speaker lengths (At least short lengths, 1m v 10m might throw up a drop in volume)

You should never 'coil' cables up, as they act as an RFI aerial

 

[Anonymous]

I would say try it and see...as we're dealing with impedence and not resistance, different lengths may affect the balance as well as the volume, but it will depend on the impedence of the cable in relation to that of the speaker.

The one cable I know of that doesn't apply is Townshend Isolda, which are impedence matched (both to each other and to the impedence of a typical speaker) so irresepctive of the length, the impendence of the cables is the same.

 

[Anonymous]

You should never 'coil' cables up, as they act as an RFI aerial

True story.

Generally speaking, you can coil them up as long as they are away from power source without having interference.

Just wondering, are there ways to organize a cable without coiling it up?

 

[def lugs]

I have ran my stereo fronts with a 1m and 4m length for last 2 years with no noticable drop in performance. A friend suggested there might be timing issues from the shorter cable run on one side but this could not be heard. If you think/calculate how much longer elctricity will take to travel an extra 3 metres. It equates to a few 1/1000ths of a milimeter by the time the signal reaches your ears so nothing to be concerned about.