short cable length: does cable "quality" matter?


Hi, I'm using short length of speaker cable (3 feet/ch). Is it important to use the very best cable you can get (>$300/ft), or is it sufficient to use some cheaper cable ($3/ft), like for example Supra copper litz speaker cable (2.5 square mm thick). Thank you.

Chris
dazzdax
Well, at the risk of stating the obvious, I think it's important to use the cable that sounds the best for the least money. You are fortunate in that if you want to try more expensive cables, it will not be as expensive for you as it is for me ( 2.5 m a side in my setup ).

My audio guru once pointed out that the fun in this hobby was getting to hear great music on fine gear... that you paid bargain prices for. Your short cables are a smart move, then, both sonically and economically. In my experience,though, cable quality makes a bigger difference than cable length.
Given that most high-end speakers can be such a 'tricky' load to drive, I'd say quality does matter. That does not mean that you have to spend the equivalent of a used car to get it. Years ago, I had the experience of speaker wire that could literally 'tune' the sound of your loudspeakers by finding the best length. Granted, it was heavy-gauge, neoprene-jacketed stuff, and wasn't very good overall, but it did teach me about the effect speaker cable can have on sound. Maybe you could split the difference, and buy some moderately-priced wire in the exact length you need? Might just give you terrific sound.
In my own system I've found that 1.5 meters of really good cable sounded much, much better than 18" of budget speaker cables. YMMV
And just to complicate things further, some say that, even using the exact same (high end) cable, 2.5m sounds better than 1.5m. I've never been able to get anyone to tell me why this is (allegedly) so, but it's fun to stir the pot, isn't it??
Any 12 or 10ga cable will serve you well. You can even make your own. In a DBT, I defy anyone to tell the difference, even against >$i0,000 boutique cables. For a change, you`ll laugh all the way to the bank.
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The shortest speaker cables I tried are 5 ft (1.5 meter) long and they make a difference. In fact, many believe that 6 inches of a "jumper" cable makes a significant difference as well, but I tend to believe that it's more about the quality of a connector for such a short length. Your 3 feet probably would make a difference.
Cable quality matters everywhere. Generally, the longer the cable, the more laid back the midrange. Try the Cable Company's cable "library" where you can borrow different brands to try for a week for a fee and pick the one you like without having to purchase everything.
Porziob: Are your oft-repeated sentiments about DBT prompted by having participated in many yourself? Just curious whether it's experience or not that makes you convinced cables can never pass a blind test. Personally I've never done a blind cable test -- since I have no 'auidobuddies' it isn't really feasible for me to accomplish. In fact, it would probably be difficult for anybody to accomplish, as a double-blind -- I think single-blind is a much more realistic prospect for most folks.

But whether one actually goes to this trouble to arrive at their cable conclusions is another question. Have you? You obviously don't feel that you yourself can hear differences between cables, and you extend that verdict to the rest of us. But did you always think that way, or were you originally open-minded and it took extensive DBT to convince you? (As for me, I was originally an open-minded doubter, and it took listening experience to convince me there was anything to it. Which isn't to say that cables necessarily always make huge differences, or that a lot of the technical claims aren't hogwash, or that cable pricing can't sometimes be a free-market bad joke run amok.)

Of course, I'm setting you up with this question. If in fact you haven't participated in enough DBT to assure yourself that both you and others indeed cannot hear cable differences (under those conditions, I must add), then you'd be a hypocrite for exhorting everyone else to do so. You'd be in the same boat as most of the rest of us, reaching your cable conclusions based on plain old regular auditioning at best, maybe augmented by hypothosizing. So here you're kind of compelled to either assert that you've done plenty of DBT -- even though it's hard to imagine why an averred cable-skeptic would -- or else admit hypocrisy. Maybe it's better just not to answer...