2. cables
  3. 188708-115924

Speaker cable length.

I have a small weekend cabin in the country. I have a modest system there consisting of a set of Polk Audio Monitor 7 tower speakers, an NAD C316 BEE integrated, Schiit Modi 2 DAC and a Denon radio receiver. Sounds much better than you might expect.

Anyway, we recently got a fireplace installed. This means that there will be a speaker on each side of the fireplace with the components on the right side of the fireplace. That means the right speaker is within 2-3 feet of the amp/components. The cable for the left speaker will run under the house from the amp and then back into the house on the left of the fireplace because I don't want it on the floor in front of the hearth. This will require about 16’ of speaker cable.

Will the difference (16’ of cable to the left speaker vs maybe 4’ to the right one) make a difference on a modest system like this? If so, what to do about it? I certainly don’t want 16’ of cable piled on the floor on the right.

Thanks for any input.

P.S.: I have good quality bulk speaker cable from Transparent if that makes any difference.

n80

Showing 2 responses by ghdprentice

ghdprentice
6,388 posts
 

The audiophile rule of thumb is that always keep both lengths the same. It is one of those things that has never been worth my while to test. It is easier to be safe. There may be many technical reasons not to do it. One is that electrical wire (non-single crystal) is made of thousands of small grains with boundaries and the signal is very slightly delayed by these causing smear. A while ago I actually read a scientific article on this… and it happens differentially across the frequency ranges. So the grains act like little capacitors. Anyway, you can see how across vastly different lengths you end up with different effects between the speakers.

Yes, coiling up wire puts wires next to each other. I am sure Transparent is shielded. I have had a coil or two here and their over my lifetime.
 

I hope this is helpful. 

ghdprentice
6,388 posts
 

@wlutke …”Pull 16 ft under the cabin and loop it back up to the right speaker, if needed.”

 

Great idea!

 

Great sound quality comes from dozens of choices. They are additive. While you may not outright hear a difference between the equal lengths of speaker cable, it still may matter with the sound quality you ultimately get. Since you already have the cable it is worth being safe on the subject.

More to discover