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Cable Length

I made some speaker wire from #14 AWG Romex SIMpull solid core wire, which I found 100+ feet at a garage sale for a couple of bucks. OCD made me keep both wires the same length, which meant about 4' extra wire length to one of the speakers.
 
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eiraved said:
Made some speaker wire from #14 AWG Romex SIMpull solid core wire, which I found 100+ feet at a garage sale for a couple of bucks. OCD made me keep both wires the same length, which meant about 4' extra wire length to one of the speakers.
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Just for completeness' sake. 14-gauge stranded copper wire has a resistance of 2.5 ohms per 1000 feet. So, that extra 4 feet = 0.010 ohms.

;)
 
Eek.

First of all, I am pretty sure you know the answer so the post is minor trolling :cool:.

This is a physics problem. What is the wire gauge? If you are using 18ga or thicker the resistance is minimal and you can cut the cable. <=20ga there will be some resistive loss over the ~30' long section.

Solutions:
1 - Cut the 5m. Use >=18 gauge cable.
2 - Cut the 5m. Use the balance knob to compensate.
3 - Coil up the cable on the 5m run.
4 - Cut the 5m. Don't hear/ignore the tiny volume difference between the two channels.
 
For those following this.

I left all four cables at 10 meters. The bit of extra cable on the right channel, center, and sub that run through the wall is tucked in the bedroom closet. The extra 5+ meters on the left cable is tucked into the entertainment center and can be pulled out at will.

The wire is 5N OFC (<0.001% impurities), super-fine strand, way oversized 12-gauge. I have never seen 12-gauge wire of this quality and paid under $1/ft (quantity discount). There were only six rolls and I got four of them. Looks like just one left. Someone needs to snatch it up!

BTW, the wire replaced some 30+ year old 14-gauge Monster cable on the L/R channels (which still looked good) and some 30+ year old 12-gauge clear "speaker wire" on the center channel and subwoofer that had sulfated to a nice turquoise color on its surface under the insulation. I also went from ferrous spade lugs to copper/gold banana jacks on the speaker ends. The amp ends already had these on the old wires. I do believe that I can hear a difference.

10M 32ft 12AWG High Quality 99% 5N OFC Copper Audio Speaker Wire 2 Conductors | eBay
 
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To ease your mind. The resistance of a generic 12-gauge stranded copper wire is 1.6 ohms per 1000 feet. Five meters = 16 feet, or 0.026 ohms.

There's prolly more resistance in some solder points within the units. :idea:
 
SaturationPt said:
The difference will be the different total inductance that the amplifier is driving (resistance, inductance, capacitance) due to the different wire lengths, which in theory can influence the sound.

Whether it is audible or matters at all is questionable, but I prefer equal wire lengths when practical. Not coiled, laid out straight in long loops is my method.
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Me too
 
toddalin said:
Yes, silver solder is very hard to work with and you can end up with lots of cold solder joints.
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Yeah. I tried it once. Didn't really like it. I've used Kester "44" for centuries. Very reliable stuff, if the Monk's hands are steady.
 
Silver added in a very small ratio to the lead/tin solder really doesn’t improve its conductivity much, … it is still MUCH WORSE than a direct mechanical connection.
 
SaturationPt said:
Silver added in a very small ratio to the lead/tin solder really doesn’t improve its conductivity much, … it is still MUCH WORSE than a direct mechanical connection.
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No a lead in this solder. And I have heard that less than 3% Ag is worthless. Mine is Kester with 95% Sn and 5% Ag.
 
I'm not going to say that I did it right, though I made up some speaker wires and with my setup the electronics are far from centered between the speakers, but I still made the cable lengths the same. That means that on one side most of the cable length is coiled up. I probably could have saved some cable by making them asymmetrical, but the cable I used was cheap enough. It least it would have saved me from that coil part of it...
 
RunOutGroove said:
I'm not going to say that I did it right, though I made up some speaker wires and with my setup the electronics are far from centered between the speakers, but I still made the cable lengths the same. That means that on one side most of the cable length is coiled up. I probably could have saved some cable by making them asymmetrical, but the cable I used was cheap enough. It least it would have saved me from that coil part of it...
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You are prolly okay. After all, I'm not sure how precisely the voice coils in the speakers and the chokes in the crossovers are wound. :idea:
 
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Yes. Some of my speaker cables are equal length, some are not... Honestly, I never noticed any significant difference, as far as I use 2x 2.5mm² sections.

In the case of excess lenght, the cable remains flat, I mean : not coiled nor wound, in order to avoid a possible inductance effect...

But it's me, OK ? :biggrin: ;)

T
 
tubelectron said:
Yes. Some of my speaker cables are equal length, some are not... Honestly, I never noticed any significant difference, as far as I use 2x 2.5mm² sections.

In the case of excess lenght, the cable remains flat, I mean : not coiled nor wound, in order to avoid a possible inductance effect...

But it's me, OK ? :biggrin: ;)

T
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It's going to be small.

EG: inductance of a 12-gauge copper wire, air core, 1 foot in diameter, 10 turns is about 60 micro-Henries (0.06 mH).

inductance of 12 gauge wire 1 foot diameter 10 turns.jpg
 
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