Speaker cable length for L/R channels critical?


I have a good system that utilizes some older discontinued speaker cable that I like a lot. It is 10 feet in length and I need that length to reach the left speaker. The amp is not (and cannot be) located center between the speakers.
The problem is I wish to biwire and have an opportunity to buy a 6 foot pair. The question is this: Can I run both 10 foot cables to the left speaker and run the 6 foot pair to right without any wierd effects like "ghosting" or have one channel be clearer or louder than the other? Any ideas? Thanx
ceb222

Showing 3 responses by pabelson

Art: If a cable colors the sound, then it is typically true that the longer it is, the more it will color the sound. (The exception: if what's coloring the sound is the circuitry within a network box, then cable length doesn't matter.) Whether cables *should* color the sound is a philosophical question, with no answer. Some audiophiles try to avoid such cables; for them, minor differences in length do not matter.

M: It is still a fact that we can't hear much above 20kHz. No amount of audio technology is going to change that.
Explain how come man can tell difference between a tweeter rolling off at 22Khz and a tweeter rolling off at 33Khz, when we should not be able to.

Simple: The tweeters also differ in the audible range. As for why companies are making such tweeters, why do amp manufacturers make amps with 0.01% THD, when nothing under 0.1% (and probably 0.5%) is audible? Possible answers: Because they can, because there are people who will buy them for whatever reason, because there's nothing wrong with building in a little extra margin, and because there's the challenge of taking something to the limit.

As for cable lengths, we agree more than you might imagine: I don't think different cable lengths matter, but I keep mine the same length anyway. Habit, perfectionism, superstition, whatever...