Speaker cable length

@millercarbon 

i'm always sus about people who've claim to have figured it out. no matter how ourt of touch they may be with interior decor

@oldhvymec.    Unfortunately my Line Magnetic only has RCA inputs. 

@bpoletti  dude, I got so many problems that monoblocks would be the least of my therapy. Besides, to find a set of monoblocks in the preamp that would give me what my line magnetic gives me for even a comparable price is ridiculous. I would much rather spend that money on music

I love this forum! I mean, where else can I ask a simple question more or less out of curiosity and generate ankle biting, learned responses, snarkiness, passionate disagreement, and occasional camaraderie? Sweet. 

@b4icu. My amp is a line magnetic 518. My speakers are spatial audios M3 turbo s's. I would be doing the switch of the components off to the side purely for aesthetic purposes. I'm using a pretty narrow salamander rack and a low amplifier stand for the line magnetic, and my spatials are about 5 ft off the back wall, so I doubt the component stands are doing anything for the sound since they are way back behind the spatials. And I would definitely go with XLR, except the line magnetic only has RCA inputs.

So I did the measurements just now. The right speaker is going to need 18 to 20 ft. The less speaker is going to need maybe 8 ft at most. Because of my triangle ratio with my listening position, a specials are about 11 ft apart and that accounts for the big discrepancy in the speaker cable length if I do move everything off to the side.

@b4icu  - thanks for the amp update as well.

@millercarbon truthfully i’m considering making this move, as i mentioned before, out of aesthetic reasons, not because i’m panicking about sonics diminished by equipment between speakers. my question was about speaker cable length which, i believe, has been answered from many sources, including you. heaven forbid someone gets under your thin skin with casual ridicule.

@hilde54   Thanks for the link. that was a fascinating video and explanation.

I don't mean to be acrid here, but those of you is spousing really short speaker cable lengths seem to be out of touch with a lot of systems reality. I know if you have monoblocks and it isn't a problem, but I don't and I don't think many other audiophiles do. plus, setting up your speakers so you are in that .83 ratio of the triangle means at a forefoot cable is virtually impossible.

@bkeske  interestingly, everything i've heard says the complete opposite - that the IC's should be kept as short as possible while speaker cables - which carry a very weak signal, can be much longer.

@bkeske. Nah, I wasn't accusing you directly of not being grounded. You add a valuable voice that I'm taking into consideration. It's just that 4' or less speaker cables are not going to happen. 


My system is:

Line Magnetic 518ia

Spatial Audio M3 Turbo S
Oppo 105

VPI HW-19 Mk4
LFD LE phono stage

@oldhvymech. Interesting. I thought that signal amplitude is much lower across speaker wires than across interconnects. and thus you would get less of an LRC loss. But hey, as you say, maybe I've been wrong all this time. Wouldn't be the first time that's happened. 

Anyhow, I've already ordered a 20-ft run and a 10-ft run of canare 4SII. This will take the place of my 8-ft length matching pair of acoustic Zen hologram. So we'll see what happens in a few days. Or whenever I get around to actually moving things. Which will mean taking apart my turntable and then setting it back up again which is something I really don't want to deal with at the moment. not because I can't do it, but simply because it's time consuming. 

@stereo5 that's what I'm inclined to believe. I mean, we're talking speed of light here, and unless you're running really thin 18 or 20 gauge wire, our ears just aren't good enough to pick up any difference. Especially with signal strength as low as what's conveyed through speaker wire.

@mesch thanks. I'll post before and after pictures on my virtual systems page when my amp gets back from being serviced.

@cakyol. My new lengths are 15 and 20 feet of 10g cable. 

An update: The line magnetic is back from being serviced, and I installed NOS 12AX7s and new 6V6 tubes. Equipment has been moved off to the side, replaced by some musical instruments and a more sound baffling absorbing piece of artwork. 

As for the sound, I really can't tell any differences. Maybe a bit less bass with the new Canare cables? Don't know offhand. but the sound is just as amazing as it was before. You can see the results on my virtual system page

https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/9393