Speaker cable length with monoblock amps?

I had some of his TG Audio 5 feet long speaker cables I traded him for

Maybe he made those cables one morning after having a little too much fun with C and T the night before, or too little of his Ethiopian coffee he liked, and accidentally cut them a foot short since the TG Audio website lists speaker cables starting at 4 feet and continuing in 2-foot increments.
One of his way back posts indicates he believed his HSR speaker cables (which were a single 16 awg soft annealed solid-core silver conductor in teflon tubing) sound the same no matter the length;

"Have made some in 20' and 16' lengths, but was unable to get the wire in the hose, a compromise....There are several sets in the 12-14' range and can't tell the difference between these and a 6' set"

You were lucky to have met him.

    

Why five feet, rather than, say, four or six? C'mon man, a little common sense is called for.

I was with Bob and Curl at CES a couple times. Among others things Bob had great ears. Plus I had some of his TG Audio 5 feet long speaker cables I traded him for, and they were fabulous. Thus, I'm inclined to believe the five foot story.

Sure Geoff, draw me a picture....draw me a pint while you are at it :-)
I miss Bob over on Audio Asylum.   I am not convinced his 5-foot cable philosophy is correct but he certainly had a sort of down home way of looking at things and a good wit.  He might have had fun with some of the current cable and fuse threads around here.  Gone too soon.

The idea that speaker cables have to be a certain minimum length strikes me as an audiophile myth too - it likely arises because people who do not understand physics have confused cables with extremely high freq. waveguides used in microwave, radar, etc.

just like 'skin effect' another red herring

mitch2
Ok, maybe, so what is your point?

>>>>>>Shirley, you jest. Shall I draw you a picture? 🖍

I have been running my system in different incarnations for 20 years and the one constant was my 22 foot long pair of speaker cables.  Both the speaker manufacturer and amp manufacturer told me there was "no problem" with the lengths of wire.

Ok, maybe, so what is your point?

Help me out. Wasn't it Bob Crump  of TG Audio who said 5 feet or thereabouts was the optimum cable length for speakers?

The idea that speaker cables have to be a certain minimum length strikes me as an audiophile myth

+1
If that were true, we would all have hook-up wire coiled inside of our speakers.

$15k/$22.5k cables/amps proportion is not what I had in mind.
In any case, as I suggested above, one must be able to tell the difference between 2' and longer cables. And the difference should be real not something bordering non-existant. It will also depend on speakers. There is no general answer. If someone is concerned with resale, yeah, not shorter than 6', if not - listen. And if auditioning is not possible and there is no-one to advise in the paricular case - 6' is probably most reasonable. Personally, I never really think of the resale value. I upgrade rarely and if after ten years I'll have to throw away an amp I paid $5k for - so be it, that's less than $50 a month. I think about performance and try to get the most of it for the least money, after that business is over and listening to music is in order.

buy 2 short runs of zipcord - test that - blind - vs. something cheap from BlueJeans cable

take the winner and test it vs. various brands from one of the rental places (i.e buy & return)

on the other thread, I agree you want to listen to the Vidars

@inna $15k a set speaker cables and $22.5k a pair amps, your point being? Yes I could have them (SR) make me up a set of short cables for $10k but who wants to pay this much for jumpers? 

As another poster suggested one option to a “free” set of cables is to buy a 10’ set, have it cut and reterminated and sell the remaining 6’ as a clean set. AQ is a really good brand to do this with as they will change up any of their cables at cost (although personally I have never liked the AQ speaker cables)

What price levels of monoblocks and cables are we talking about? At high level you should not worry too much about resale value.

I had Kimber make me some 1' silver cables when I had a pair of mono amps. The idea that speaker cables have to be a certain minimum length strikes me as an audiophile myth; I've never read any EE theory supporting the idea. Real short cables can always be used as jumpers on speakers having two sets of binding posts (for bi-wiring).

Someday you will replace your monoblocks with a stereo amp and your cables will have to be replaced. 
Alan

May or may not be relevant to you but any cable less than 6’ is going to be a rough resell. Certainly if I was buying new that would be a major consideration. I use mono blocks that would work with a 4’ cable but I have an 8’ set and cross them behind the amps ie left amp is on the right side as I look at the speakers and so on

This is always an interesting topic.

Thru the decades I’ve been told here, and by wire sellers (go figure) 6ft. or 1.5M is the optimum length for most any cable. Or that has been my impression all along since reading these pages on various power and signal cables. Including digital links.

I gave more creedance to the far more objective accounts from members than from seller, although some times the input is congruent.

My next setup will not require lengthy spkr wires. I’m gonna have my 21ft SR active spkr wires cut down by SR to about half as long. Maybe less. Probably re-terminate them too.

Everyone so far that has borrowed these cables has brought them back saying they were very impressed. They’ve ben the most neutral conduit to the spkrs of any I’ve yet tried, regardless the amp or speakers connected to either end.

For all intents and purposes I can not believe two, three, or four feet added onto a two foot speaker cable will be as obvious as a 100lb pumpkin in a pumpkin patch. I can see how easier it would be to deal with however.

Add in the time needed to accurately account on these various lenths and additional distances, my thinking is its time poorly wasted. Unless…. We’re talking about an additional several thousand bucks for those two, three, ft or more. Or worse yet, per foot. Yikes.

Unless cost is an obstacle, having a few extra feet of cable often comes in quite handy as systems migrate and morph their ways along.

Naturally, as was said previously, this is gonna all hang on the spkr cable influence or lack thereof.

I’d also say if I wer a spkr cable maker I’d try to make what ever level of cable sound the same as it does in shorter lengths or perhaps longer, within reason given electronic constraints.

Audible per foot? Unlikely. Cost per foot? Could be serious.

Very good luck going forward.

This could be another test for audiophiles. Can you hear a difference between 2 and 3 feet speaker cables? How about 2 feet and 2 meters?
I suggest you first choose the cable brand, they are not created equal, just like people. Generally speaking, I would go with 3 or 5 feet depending on where binding posts are located.

Three feet/one meter is a good length so you can move things around reasonably.
The longer the cable, the more inductance, resistance, and capacitance but the difference between 2 and 3 feet is basically non-existent.  For that matter, I doubt you would hear any difference if you need to stretch it to 5 feet or 1.5 M.