Maximum cable length


What is the maximum (reasonable) single ended cable length from a pre-amp to an amp?
jfe7
steve at krell says the accepted standard is 2 meters but he him self has run a 20ft pair with no problem he says constuction of the cable is very important! thanks he also states that the kma200 have checked out perfect as i thought
Cornfedboy, what you did seems rather interesting. Did moving your speakers further out from the wall give you any sonic enhancement? That's what I do with my Aerial 10Ts. The choice of Cardas neutral reference balanced interconnects was a great choice; I use them too.
I am currently using a 12 Meter (40 foot) pair of Purist Dominus in single ended configuration. This length has been successfully driven by three different preamps with no apparent loss. The quality of the cable has a lot to do with this. All cable has a capacitance rating, and when that number get too high, the upper frequencies get lopped off. Dominus is less than 14 PF per foot.
why is it that you need a long run of cable between a preamp and amp? i assume you have opted for shorter speaker cables in lieu of longer interconnects; if so, that's a wise choice. i use a 9 meter run of balanced cardas neutral reference between my pre and amp and 2 meter speaker cables. this configuration is greatly superior to my former one that used relatively short interconnects so that my electronics and digital frontend could be fit between my speakers. by moving everything but my largish amp (jrdg model 8) from between my speakers (avalon eidolons), i've added dramatically to the depth and width of the soudstage and increased focus and stability of the image. i've also tried long lengths (7 meters) of single-ended interconnect in another iteration of my system with some frustration due to rf and hum. unless you get good cable designed like the neutral reference to perform well in long runs, you may be adding a very effective and unwanted antenna with single-ended runs of more than 2 or 3 meters. in any event DON'T GET STUCK WITH ANY CABLE YOU CAN'T TRY BEFORE BUYING.
I'd ask stnemo@starpower.net, the STEALTH cable designer. I've heard of a successful 30' interconnect from a phono preamp, don't know whether it was balanced or not.