Cable lengths

Inductance, iirc, is related (for a "normal" wire) to the diameter of the conductor. The capacitance of the cable is related to the distance between conductors.

By normal wire, I mean one that is not a spiral like the old Krell/Symo stuff for example...

Some mfrs do things to add capacitance (shunt capacitance) via the relationship between the wires so as to offset the self inductance of the cable. Dunlavy's patents might make for good reading on this sort of idea.

Personally, I'm against this sort of idea since it rarely seems to yield a cable that sounds good to my ears. What seems to happen is that the capacitance wrecks havoc with the output waveform of feedback amps. For non-feedback amps (the few out there) the effect is different. So, IMHO, these sorts of cables never sound alike on two different amps or speakers. Unpredictable.

I try to minimize the inherent inductance and capacitance effects and feel that results in the most predictable and stable cables.

And again, the internal geometry of any cable will play the major role in its sound, the wire, materials, and the like being more secondary or even less important. That's not to say that you can not hear any of these effects when comparing identically built cables with one item changed, you often can.

So, the idea is that if you use two different lengths, usually the basic L & C values will be different enough to cause some differential in what you may hear. So, go for two
identical lengths, and DON'T COIL the excess cable!

(it makes an inductor) :- )

_-_-bear

NO, not magnetic field generation! By coiling the cable you are making, well, a coil! This increases the series inductance of the cable, rolling off the highs.

What you do with your wife and your antenna, is another matter for a different group, I think! ; -)

_-_-bear

That inductance is measurable at audio frequencies.

If you look at the output of a typical solid state amplifier with an inductor in the output you can easily measure the change in the way a square wave is reproduced with and without the inductor when driving a capacitive load. Most speakers have a capacitive load angle somewhere.

So, it is highly probable that increasing the series inductance that the amp sees WILL have a measureable and probably audible effect within the "audio range."

Published tests have shown that this small series inductance found in cables will cause a small but measurable drop by 20kHz. This is different than the square wave effect I mentioned above, but does show a measured effect within the "audio range."

In general it is a good idea to minimize these effects in a system that you are trying to optimize. If you are not trying to put together such a system, it won't matter at all.

_-_-bear

Well, Bufus is not telling you the whole story.

What he did say is essentially correct though!

The fact is that the resitance of the cable is in the milliohms, and that a double (100%) increase in resistance is really rather small. So, it's not the resistance that you have to worry about too much.

IF there is anything to worry about it is the reactance and the effect that it will have on how your amp sees the load. In some cases (highly capacitive speaker cables come to mind) I'd actually want some series inductance with certain loads.

But, for optimizing a system, I'd have to say keep both sides the same as much as is practical.

And, coiling *one side* of a speaker cable is likely to not be as good as not coiling one side...

In case you are unsure about what the effect of "out of band" reactance is on a typical amp, try measuring a square wave with a capacitive load on it! It usually doesn't look very pretty - and doesn't usually sound so pretty either.

_-_-bear