Does speaker wire length matter?
- Thread starter lawdogg
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Copa1934
My ears are bleeding
Given the dimensions you've provided, likely not. However, I'm certainly interested to hear other opinions on the matter. I've always used the same length, but likely when you start getting into longer lengths, in excess of 20' or so, there might be a difference due to the different "load", which of course will vary with the gauge of wire.
Wigwam Jones
Caesar non supra grammati
Generally speaking, I believe it is better if they are the same length. Whether or not you will hear a difference either way is subject to debate and you'd have to use your own ears to be the judge.
I have noticed the difference (a very long time ago) between two otherwise-identical wires, one about twice as long as the other. The difference to me was heard as lower volume from the speaker with the longer wire. The wires were also very thin gauge wire of a type I would not use today, so it may have made the difference more obvious to me. Once I made them the same length, the two sides no longer sounded different in terms of volume.
I suggest you try it and if you do not notice a difference, then do not worry about it. But all things being equal, I'd try to make them the same length.
The worst thing that could be the case is that there's significantly more resistance across your 25' wire, in which case there is not any advantage to subjecting the other channel to the same treatment, so you should still cut them to the appropriate length. Well, okay there is channel balance, but if your wire is such high resistance that you can notice a volume difference between 25' and 15', you should get heavier wire.
If you are worried about a time offset, don't be.
If you are worried about a time offset, don't be.
Poultrygeist
Lunatic Member
Makes no difference.
jazzmans
Super Member
It can matter in resistence, and heresay claims timing issues if they are different lengths, although I have to say I run very long runs of 16-18 guage wire and have no issues.
At work I regularly run 200+ foot runs (balanced) with left and right being different lengths, sometimes hundred foot difference, with no timing difference AFAIK.
If you have too much, coil the excess in a figure eight, that cancels out the electromagnetic field being generated.
jaz
At work I regularly run 200+ foot runs (balanced) with left and right being different lengths, sometimes hundred foot difference, with no timing difference AFAIK.
If you have too much, coil the excess in a figure eight, that cancels out the electromagnetic field being generated.
jaz
It wouldn't matter if you did.
Pyrrho
Super Member
As others have said, with those distances, it does not matter, provided the gauge is adequate for your situation. For a lengthy discussion of this and other speaker wire related matters, see:
http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm
http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm
To me it's like using two different width tires on the same axle of a car...it works but why would you want to?
Pyrrho
Super Member
It is not at all like that. There is a problem with using different width tires on the same axel, but not one with using different length wires.
lawdogg
New Member
Due to space constraints in my listening room, the receiver will be on the south wall, while the speakers will be in the corners on the north wall, spaced ~10 feet apart. Speaker wire will run along the baseboard of the east wall to reach the speakers (the west wall has a couple doorways, so I don't want to run wire along that wall), with the result that the run to the closer speaker will be ~10 feet shorter than the run to the farther speaker. I don't "want to," but that's the man cave I've got to work with.
Smash
Likes it loud
Hmm, well I noticed a small delay in one of my outdoor speaker zones, I have the amps in the garage then there is one speaker with about 5 meters of wire to get to the one side, and 200m to get to the other side of our fire pit area, standing in the center of the two i can make out a very slight echo even when i switch the system to mono, both runs are using heavy duty outdoor phone line wire (solid copper)
It would drive me nuts if it was in my home system, I tend to always have the same sized wires anyways, even if one side only needs 1/4 the other one does ill just roll it up.. I wasent to keen on having 200m of wire wrapped up for the fire pit sound though lol
(Peavey CS-800 with generic solid wood speakers with thick paint coating to waterproof them, Mounted up in trees... Sounds awesome out there hah)
It would drive me nuts if it was in my home system, I tend to always have the same sized wires anyways, even if one side only needs 1/4 the other one does ill just roll it up.. I wasent to keen on having 200m of wire wrapped up for the fire pit sound though lol
(Peavey CS-800 with generic solid wood speakers with thick paint coating to waterproof them, Mounted up in trees... Sounds awesome out there hah)
so_ein_pech
Well-Known Member
Any echo is due to the fact that the speakers are so far apart, not cable lengths. You could use 200m of wire to connect both the near and the far speaker and you will likely experience the same effect.
Here's is my attempt to show this mathematically:
The speed an EM wavefront in copper is about 2/3 of the speed of light or about 2e8 m/s (200,000 km/s). This means that the sound that has to travel the extra 195m will be delayed by 9.75e-6 s or 975 nanoseconds. If the speed of sound in air is 343m/s, then the sound wave would travel about 3.3e-4 m or 0.33 mm in this time. This means that if you're head is more than .33 mm away from dead center between the two speakers, you will observe more delay than you would from a 200m cable lead (and if my calculations are correct).
