I myself have always preferred my audio gear sitting to my right side which, of course requires unequallengths of speaker wires. Then I discovered Jenna Lab's 18 gage hook up wires which worked very well t the time. Then about seven years ago I aquired a then one foot pair of the top of the line Shunyata speaker wires. I hooked the Shunyata wired to my speakers and the 18 age Jenna Lab's hook up wires between my Rega Orisis integrated amplifier and the one foot Shunyata speaker wires. It worked. Very well in fact. Now skipping to two years ago I had changed the Shubyata one foot speaker wires for the present one foot pair of the top of the lind MG Audio Design speker wires. By that time I had also added another Jenna Lab's 18ngage speaker wires to the equation-that is two wires per channel instead of jut one. Eight in total instead of only four. Later I added a third Jenna Lab hook up wire to the equation. The result' are beyond belief. Actually it is as if the Jenna Lab's 18 gage hook up wires allow the one foot MG Audio Design wires to shine thru totally. As if the little Jenna Lab wires to dissapear in the sound equation. OK, I learned about MG Audio Design wires from Arnie Nudell and Paul McGowan. That is what they both use on their own audio systems. Jenna Labs is another small wire manufacture. Well Jennifer used to design VAC tube gear and John Curl is a very good friend of Jennifer and her husband and have actually been working on preamps for years. Oh yes, on my audio system I an using six 17 foot runs on my left speker and six 10 foot runs on my right side. And the total cost for an average 14.5 foot pair of speaker wires comes to about $1800 total. There is the factor that the MG Audio Design wires are silver and the Jenna Lab's are copper. But they work. In conclusion, this is quite possibly the best cost verses performance speaker wire possible today. But that just statement by itself does not begin to ddiscribe how awsome they truly are. I have no financial interest or ulterior motives whatsoever. I am just tell anyone interested my results.
Unequal Speaker Cable Lengths - a solution from Cerious Technologies
For as long as I can remember my systems have been on an opposite wall from my speakers. This has led to many problems, the least of which is how to deal with the excess cable from one leg/run. It also runs the cable cost up since I've needed pairs approaching 17 ft for my last system. My latest system requires 13 ft to the farthest speaker. After considering many of the leading cables I was leaning towards the new
Audience AU24 SX. A four meter pair would have cost me around $4000.
So what are the options? As always, if I go with the matched pair I'll have to coil the excess and find a way to support it off the floor as I'm a great believer in acrylic cable risers. If I find a company to make me a pair of unmatched lengths, is there a difference in sound, imaging, balance, etc.? You will find many parties on both sides of this argument. I've got one foot over the line - to the side that believes speaker cables should be equal length.
Thankfully, many companies are willing to make unequal pairs and then re-terminate the long one at a later date for a price. This solves the re-sell issue and Audience is in the group that will do this. That still doesn't solve the sonic differences of unequal pairs if they exist. I've also always thought that a coiled speaker cable could potentially act as a RFI/EMI attracting antenna. If so, is there also a downside to equal length pairs used in this configuration? I suppose that depends on the length of the excess.
That brings me to a solution that I found due to the many posts on Audiogon regarding Cerious Technologies. After reading the glowing reviews about their speaker cables, I sent an email to Bob Grost from Cerious regarding these questions. Here is his response:
So what are the options? As always, if I go with the matched pair I'll have to coil the excess and find a way to support it off the floor as I'm a great believer in acrylic cable risers. If I find a company to make me a pair of unmatched lengths, is there a difference in sound, imaging, balance, etc.? You will find many parties on both sides of this argument. I've got one foot over the line - to the side that believes speaker cables should be equal length.
Thankfully, many companies are willing to make unequal pairs and then re-terminate the long one at a later date for a price. This solves the re-sell issue and Audience is in the group that will do this. That still doesn't solve the sonic differences of unequal pairs if they exist. I've also always thought that a coiled speaker cable could potentially act as a RFI/EMI attracting antenna. If so, is there also a downside to equal length pairs used in this configuration? I suppose that depends on the length of the excess.
That brings me to a solution that I found due to the many posts on Audiogon regarding Cerious Technologies. After reading the glowing reviews about their speaker cables, I sent an email to Bob Grost from Cerious regarding these questions. Here is his response:
"We make "matched" pairs of speaker cables in different lengths (we are currently making a set that are 6 foot/15 foot...). What sets us apart is that we do not run our wire off of a spool. No matter what wire you use a different length of 6 ft/15 ft will sound different and screw up the imaging. We use an 8 foot length as a reference and build conductors to a specific length that perform exactly like the reference. So...a 15 foot long conductor of GE SC will be 1.75 times the effective gauge as an 8 foot conductor. Your case of a 8 ft/13 ft set will image dead center on vocals unlike standard wire based conductors. A set of GE SC in 8 ft/13 ft lengths would be $799 set."
My first thought was $799? - what a steal considering their reputation, the technology, and the competition. Then, and most importantly, unequal doesn't have to mean unmatched. I placed the order and received the cables a few weeks ago. I now have 50+ hours on them and they have surpassed my expectations both in build/finish quality and performance. They also image dead-center as Bob promised. These are very musical cables that have tons of inner detail and don't break the bank!
When it comes time to sell, I don't have the enormous investment in these that I couldn't find a buyer for a good price as is. I would have lost far more than $799 re-selling most of the cables I was considering.