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Advice on Speaker Wiring - Larger Advent w. McIntosh MA6500 Amplifier / Speaker Settings

I recently connected a second set of Larger Advent speakers to my McIntosh MA6500 Amplifier.  They are in another room, about 70 feet away.

I used 16 gauge Rocketfish speaker wire, that I ran down under the house in the crawl space. The speaker wire came in a 100ft roll, so I have about 30 ft left over.  

I'm wondering if I should cut the speaker wire, so that the wire is the shortest distance possible between the amp and the speaker? Or can I leave the full 100ft length with the excess spooled up behind the HiFi rack, in case I ever want to move the system in the same room? 

Will there be any audible difference in the sound between running the speaker wire 70 ft vs 100 ft?

Also, the Larger Advents have settings on the back to switch between Normal, Decrease and Extended. I have them set on Normal. Any information on what the difference is between these settings?

Thanks in advance!

Paul in Astoria

paulinastoria
secretguy
1,591 posts
 

Theoretically, the shorter, the better. And also most will tell you that 16 ga. is too light. Personally i doubt you'd hear any difference with changes,

secretguy
1,591 posts
 

I don't recall Advents having adjustments, but I guess my memory is faulty. Most likely a setting for tweeter level.

kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,410 posts
 

Not even taking into account inductive reactance, resistance will be substantial.  Gauge 16 is about 4mohm/ft making 0.8ohm per 2x100ft.   I would keep it as short as possible and use thicker wire.  Coiling unused cable would make no difference, but I would stay as short as possible.

With thicker wire you might get another problem - resistance change because of skin effect.  12 gauge copper wire has about 1/3 higher resistance  at 20kHz (0.4ohm/2x100ft) than at 20Hz (0.3ohm/2x100ft).  It might not be important, since most speakers are inductive at high frequencies - meaning their impedance gets way higher.

joshua43214
41 posts
 

Wire on a roll is also called an inductor.

 

Just fold the extra back and forth under the floor if you don't want to cut it short.

 

Also, imo that is far too long a run for 16ga wire, and miles too long for the cheap zip chord you used.

Belden wire is very affordable from Bluejeans cables. I had zip chord running to surrounds in my HT that I replaced with Belden wire and heard an immediate difference even with cheap speakers and an AVR.

 

Yeah, I know ASR says it's fine, it's not...

paulinastoria OP
12 posts
 

@joshua43214 

"Also, imo that is far too long a run for 16ga wire, and miles too long for the cheap zip chord you used."  

Why?

From what I see on Amazon, Bluejeans cables have a max length of 50ft, not long enough.  

 

 

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