Matching Speaker Cable Length

Shark Bait

Active Member
Okay, does it really matter? I have speakers spaced out in a large area. They are equally spaced but the amp is not centrally located. That means that the length of the speaker cable does not need to be the same length for the left and right channels to reach the speakers. Does that matter. Right now I have this big dangling speaker wire that is doing nothing so the channels are the same.
 
We've had a similar discussion in the past, the general consensus was to have equal lengths. This is mostly to do with the future. Like, what if you want to move things around in the future and the short cable is just a tad too short. Keeping them equal gives you the best shot at things continue to work when you mix things up a bit.

Oh, and someone always says to NOT coil the excess speaker cable up, claiming it'll make an inductor. Ignore them, they know not of what they speak. IOW, coiling a speaker cable is just fine and won't make some huge ass inductor.
 
Okay, does it really matter? I have speakers spaced out in a large area. They are equally spaced but the amp is not centrally located. That means that the length of the speaker cable does not need to be the same length for the left and right channels to reach the speakers. Does that matter. Right now I have this big dangling speaker wire that is doing nothing so the channels are the same.

It does not matter of course.

My OCD tells me otherwise, and I follow it.
 
Maybe use this as an excuse to ditch the speaker wires and upgrade to a matched pair of speaker cables the length you need?
 
The biggest (only, really) issue I can see is with unequal cable resistance. A 20' cable will have double the resistance of a 10' cable. Really, though, the only way this would be a factor is with small-gauge wire. Keep it big enough and DC resistance will be close to zero at any reasonable length.

Don't worry. Play tunes. :thumbsup:
 
Sounds like you're doing custom length and will have some cables kicking around. Try it both ways and let your ears decide. If your ears likes a particular setup best then who cares what someone on an internet forum says. When it comes to listening I like to change 1 and only 1 component/factor then listen for at least a week before making a final decision. I've been in audio for 30 years and keep my equipment for years so I don't need to know if X change made a noticeable difference in 2.4813834343 milliseconds.
 
It does not matter of course.

My OCD tells me otherwise, and I follow it.

Precisely! How could anyone possibly enjoy listening knowing that one speaker cable is shorter than the other, and therefore MUST be offsetting the balance of things?; regardless of what Einstein said about the speed of light. LOL

Totally won't matter BTW, unless you're running thousands of miles of speaker cable... but your OCD will always know. [nodding emoji]
 
Agreed that minor differences in length won't matter much. However, once I really pushed the envelope and had one side about six feet while the other was only three. The 'speaker cable resistance opposition delta' (what expert audiophiles call 'SCROD' for short) then established an electrical anomaly which ended up shorting out the rest of my house's electrical circuits and before the fiasco was complete, half of my county was without power for several days. So, you might want to be careful because I'm not very popular in my neighborhood any more.
 
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186,000 miles per second x 5280 ft =982080000.00 ft per second. Most amplfiers top range is around 100000 cycles per-second. The sound would travel 9820.8 ft in the time span. So I don't think you will be able to hear the difference Even if the length of wire was a mile long. .

At 10,000 cycles, or a 10,000 th of a second the sound would travel 98208 ft. divided by 5,280=18.6 miles. Now if you / 2 to reverse the polarity = 9.3 miles. So if the wire were 9.3 miles long and your speakers added perfectly with a 10,000 cycle tone the sound would cancel each other. Of course the wire would have to be perfect with no losses.
 
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... I've been in audio for 30 years and keep my equipment for years so I don't need to know if X change made a noticeable difference in 2.4813834343 milliseconds.

If it doesn't make a difference immediately, I feel it not even worth my time at all.

Different priorities maybe.
 
186,000 miles per second x 5280 ft =982080000.00 ft per second. Most amplfiers top range is around 100000 cycles per-second. The sound would travel 9820.8 ft in the time span. So I don't think you will be able to hear the difference Even if the length of wire was a mile long. .

At 10,000 cycles, or a 10,000 th of a second the sound would travel 98208 ft. divided by 5,280=18.6 miles. Now if you / 2 to reverse the polarity = 9.3 miles. So if the wire were 9.3 miles long and your speakers added perfectly with a 10,000 cycle tone the sound would cancel each other. Of course the wire would have to be perfect with no losses.
The number you quote is the speed of light. Sound travels at 767 mph or about 343 meters per second. Try your formula with that number.
 
Agreed that minor differences in length won't matter much. However, once I really pushed the envelope and had one side about six feet while the other was only three. The 'speaker cable resistance delta' (what expert audiophiles call SCRD for short) then established an electrical anomaly which ended up shorting out the rest of my house's electrical circuits and before the fiasco was complete, half of my county was without power for several days. So, you might want to be careful because I'm not very popular in my neighborhood any more.

I remember hearing about that on the news.... crazy!
 
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