Unequal speaker cable lengths: audible consequences?

Posted by: Rana Ali on 09 January 2002

Hi Folks

Just wondered if anyone had any experiences of unequal cable lengths above the minimum 3.5m of A5 per side. What are the audible consequences if, say, one side were 6m and the other 4m?

Cheers

Rana

Posted on: 09 January 2002 by Rana Ali

I gather it's good practice, but would the "imbalance" be cured by the balance knob, or are you talking about sound quality differences? If so, what would one hear? I find it hard to believe that there would be a signal loss due to the extra resistance, or is it due to an imbalance of inductance or some such?

Sorry about the silly questions, as you can see, I'm a newcomer to the forum and I didn't want metres of coiled A5 - behind my speaker (my room forces one speaker to be very close to the amp).

Posted on: 10 January 2002 by Andy S

quote:

Originally posted by Stallion:

There would be an imbalance in sound between left and right channels.

What level of difference would there be in Ranas configuration (6m and 4m of NACA5, assuming a standard speaker?)?

quote:
Adjusting the balance control would be counterproductive as you would over emphasise one channel attempting to redress the imbalance caused by the variation in cable lengths.

Err... yes. This is exactly what Rana is suggesting. Why is it counterproductive?

quote:

As long as you keep the excess cable looped neatly to the side of the speaker...

So, looping the cable turns it into an inductor. Why doesn't this have any affect on the sound? It is, after all, affecting the properties of the cable.

Andy

Posted on: 10 January 2002 by Peter Stockwell

Rana,

I run cable lengths of 5m and 3m in my system, and don't feel i'm suffering. . I feel that the room assymetry introduces variables that overwhelm a minor difference in cable length.

BTW, There's a article in a recent Stereophile that contends that the damage done to audio signals in a wire is to do with impedance mismatching, rather than the length of wire per se.

Peter

Posted on: 10 January 2002 by Derek Wright

Received wisdom said a figure of eight for the surplus speaker cable

Posted on: 10 January 2002 by Rana Ali

Result: I shall go with 6m of A5 per side with the "shorter" side in a loose figure of 8.

I only asked 'cos the non-Naim connector I am currently using (it's called Puresonic: still gradually going over to the flat earth ideal, you see)is 6m and 4m and I noticed that changing the coiled 4m for a 1.5m non-coiled in an effort to hear what it did was interesting. Initially I thought I had a better sound, but going back to the 4m but this time uncoiled brought a much better result. More, ahem, spaciousness.

Trouble is, the many metres or so of A5 underneath the right hand Kan stand will look shite. I'll just shut my eyes and enjoy the music.

Thanks again gents.

Rana