First of all, I think Bob goes too far with his ten million-to-one ratio. Only really high quality cable with great timing characteristics is forgiving of differences in length, and then who cares because you're probably not going to invest in a lopsided pair of Siltechs or Purists anyway, are you?
On the other hand, the imaging performance of unequal lengths of lower priced (IC) cables suffers more from time smearing (eliminating t/s is the main cost driver of high priced ICs IMO) than unequal lengths of as much as even 3 to 1
Pabelson, Bryston used to have a really great damping factor vs. wire gauge vs. wire length chart for their amps. And if your amp is SS and (for now) you're going to use some cheap, big gauge Monster or Home Depot zip cord, stay under 25 feet for the longer run and you're done. If you have a tube amp, however, I think the best source of info (about recommended wire size vs. length) would be the manufacturer -- who could also tell you what the best you could expect out of their units would be if you used the shortest/fattest possible speaker cable (essentially a pair of jumpers between amp and speaker). One day though, when you decide you'd like more resolution, and to give your equipment the chance to be all that it can be, your not going to buy (special order probably) an unequal length pair of quality speaker cables. C'mon !!?
This is one reason folks who like to biamp often combine SS for the low end, with a tube amp for the highs and mids, where damping control is easy even for a tube amp. And it's also the reason why those who prefer no more than one amp per speaker, are always looking for the best of both worlds, usually expressed as "The most musical solid state amp ever made!" I think the darTZeel is currently the poster child for that award.
The moral of the story is: Unequal lengths? Sure, go ahead, you're likely talking about using cheap stuff anyway, so who cares?
Want better performance and better cables? Never going to need to sell them for ANY reason? Sure, buy an unequal length pair of Kimbers or whatever (you're gonna be sorry, ha ha!)
On the other hand, the imaging performance of unequal lengths of lower priced (IC) cables suffers more from time smearing (eliminating t/s is the main cost driver of high priced ICs IMO) than unequal lengths of as much as even 3 to 1
Pabelson, Bryston used to have a really great damping factor vs. wire gauge vs. wire length chart for their amps. And if your amp is SS and (for now) you're going to use some cheap, big gauge Monster or Home Depot zip cord, stay under 25 feet for the longer run and you're done. If you have a tube amp, however, I think the best source of info (about recommended wire size vs. length) would be the manufacturer -- who could also tell you what the best you could expect out of their units would be if you used the shortest/fattest possible speaker cable (essentially a pair of jumpers between amp and speaker). One day though, when you decide you'd like more resolution, and to give your equipment the chance to be all that it can be, your not going to buy (special order probably) an unequal length pair of quality speaker cables. C'mon !!?
This is one reason folks who like to biamp often combine SS for the low end, with a tube amp for the highs and mids, where damping control is easy even for a tube amp. And it's also the reason why those who prefer no more than one amp per speaker, are always looking for the best of both worlds, usually expressed as "The most musical solid state amp ever made!" I think the darTZeel is currently the poster child for that award.
The moral of the story is: Unequal lengths? Sure, go ahead, you're likely talking about using cheap stuff anyway, so who cares?
Want better performance and better cables? Never going to need to sell them for ANY reason? Sure, buy an unequal length pair of Kimbers or whatever (you're gonna be sorry, ha ha!)