Odd length speaker cables

I too agree that coiling the excess length is undesirable. And that having significantly unequal lengths would probably decimate resale value.

A point to keep in mind is that if you can manage to find speaker cables for which the longer cable behaves in an essentially neutral manner with your particular speakers and amplifier, imposing minimal sonic effects on the signal, the shorter one will too. The higher the impedance of your speakers, the easier it will be to find such a cable, although significant trial and error may still be required.

And I agree with Kal's point, that if in fact having unequal lengths has adverse sonic consequences in some systems, propagation delay/arrival time differences are NOT the reason. Although I think his reference to 7 inches should have said 7 feet, and therefore "about 0.0006 microseconds" should have said something like "less than 0.01 microseconds," at most audible frequencies. That figure would be somewhat greater at deep bass frequencies, btw, but still thousands of times less than the arrival time difference resulting from a 1 foot difference in speaker-to-listener distance.

Regards,
-- Al

A few years ago I murdered a perfectly good extension cord looking for a good speaker cable. Needed 6 feet on one end and 12 feet on other. Tried other lengths (2 ft-15ft, 6ft-20ft etc) and found that any mis-match of length more than 20% was sonicaly notable. Have tried more recently "better" cables with similar results. Shorter-longer not better-worse, just different. Moving speakers around will change perception due to different sonic presentation of different cable lengths. Regards to all that have commented on this aggravating topic. Mike

Thanks everyone. I spoke to a local dealer who " does not believe in significant difference". He claims that years ago he conducted double blind studies with groups of audio enthusiasts, repeated each test 10 times and less than 20% were able to tell a difference 20% of the time. He moved to a smaller space fiew years back and has a 50 and 30 foot run of silver sonic that he cant use and will part with for a $100. I will pick it up and experiment myself.

Your dealer is wrong.
The better the equipment the more you will notice the difference in the uneven cable length.

Really, IMHO you should go as short as possible.
I think you should rethink your equipment layout and try to make the runs close to the same.

Your dealer is wrong.
The better the equipment the more you will notice the
difference in the uneven cable length.

Well, that assertion should settle it for once and all. All
you have to do is be able to accept it.

I can't.