The five foot length difference you referred to, or any other length difference that is likely to occur in a home environment, will result in no perceivable difference in volume. Period.
With respect to possible sonic effects other than on volume, most and probably nearly all speaker cable effects, and relevant speaker cable parameters, are proportional to length. Therefore, if the two cables are identical models but have unequal lengths, their sonic effects can be expected to be similar in character but to be introduced to a lesser degree by the shorter cable.
Personally, I highly doubt that the result of that would be a difference that is perceivable to most listeners in most systems. Even if it were to make a perceivable difference in a given case, however, I see no basis for assuming that the sonics of the equal length situation would be preferable to the sonics of the unequal length situation. Which is the better choice, between the following two alternatives?
(a)Having identical inaccuracies introduced into the sound produced by the two speakers, or
(b)Having less inaccuracy introduced into the sound produced by one of the speakers, at the expense of its sound becoming slightly different than the sound produced by the other speaker?
I don't see any basis for predicting which of those alternatives would be preferable in a given system to a given listener, if in fact it were to make any difference at all (which it probably won't).
Regards,
-- Al
With respect to possible sonic effects other than on volume, most and probably nearly all speaker cable effects, and relevant speaker cable parameters, are proportional to length. Therefore, if the two cables are identical models but have unequal lengths, their sonic effects can be expected to be similar in character but to be introduced to a lesser degree by the shorter cable.
Personally, I highly doubt that the result of that would be a difference that is perceivable to most listeners in most systems. Even if it were to make a perceivable difference in a given case, however, I see no basis for assuming that the sonics of the equal length situation would be preferable to the sonics of the unequal length situation. Which is the better choice, between the following two alternatives?
(a)Having identical inaccuracies introduced into the sound produced by the two speakers, or
(b)Having less inaccuracy introduced into the sound produced by one of the speakers, at the expense of its sound becoming slightly different than the sound produced by the other speaker?
I don't see any basis for predicting which of those alternatives would be preferable in a given system to a given listener, if in fact it were to make any difference at all (which it probably won't).
Regards,
-- Al