boomac Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 Is there any advantage to using the same length of speaker wire for both speakers even if they differ in distance from the power source? I met somebody that believes this would make a difference but I cant imagine it would unless we were talking a difference of hundreds of feet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicholtl Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 It would take a distance of miles to make a difference. So long as you're using 12AWG or larger (as in lower a #). Interconnects is probably what that fellow was referring to, as those signals are weaker in comparison, and the longer the length, the greater the chance of signal degredation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben. Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 In a situation that would reasonably be encountered at home, it would make much more of a difference to move a speaker an inch. I haven't done the math, but you get the point. In the wire, you're working with the speed of light. Coupla yards won't amount to anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben. Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 Ok, now I'm curious. Bear with me here. C=186,000 ft/sec, right? (This is on the fly, as I'm on dial-up at home, and I don't feel like waiting to download the references.) Let's use 1ms as an unacceptable delay that would cause your stereo image to shift (it'd be minor, but let's use it as a number to start out with). So C=186,000,000 ft/ms and that would be 35.22 miles/ms. Um, yeah the delay would be no real issue. Anybody know what kind of capacitance and resistance figures would cause a measurable change in performance? When I was doing live sound (thank god I don't have to work that hard anymore), we always used the same length cable for stereo runs. Of course, we tended to work with 25 or 50 ft increments. It being impractical to use the really thick and/or exotic stuff, capacitance was an issue. If 12kHz was rolling off, at least it would be the same in both stacks, and it would be more easily overcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMcGoo Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 The keep the speaker wires the same length nonsense is urban legend. It is based on resistance of the wire. If folks use 12 awg or larger wire in their home theater, resistance will not be an issue in most cases. Hence differences in wire length should not be an issue. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Songer Posted December 15, 2004 Share Posted December 15, 2004 Much easier to sell the wire later on audiogon or ebay if you start out with equal lenghts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wheelman Posted December 15, 2004 Share Posted December 15, 2004 Has anyone heard that 8 feet is better than 6 feet? I've heard to long of runs degrades the sound, but I have heard this and it seems weird to me. Boomac I had that type of setup before I guess I wouldn't know because I never cut the other to match it. But it sounded good. I totally agree with Allan on the resale value if you ever wanted to resell and upgrade. Or resell and try different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boomac Posted December 15, 2004 Author Share Posted December 15, 2004 Wait a minute. Who would buy my used speaker wire? Either ya'll yankin my chain or I need to discuss a speaker wire upgrade. I did buy some expensive Kimber Kable Interconnect for between the pre amp and the CD player. For what I paid I better hear a difference or the boomac will be on the war path! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwinr Posted December 15, 2004 Share Posted December 15, 2004 I like to keep my cables as short as possible. It's cheaper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doudou Posted December 15, 2004 Share Posted December 15, 2004 bclarke421 you re right but the current don t goes as fast as the light. but it doesn t change a lot your calcul. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doudou Posted December 15, 2004 Share Posted December 15, 2004 one of the wire for my rears is about twice the other and it sound very good. you can only have problems with wire lenght if they very very long. in a house you should never have problem with wire lenght. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richinlr Posted December 15, 2004 Share Posted December 15, 2004 Darn it! Found it on the internet a while ago and can't find it now. The flow of electricity in wire is NOT at the constant 'c' (approx. 186,000 mi/sec). Since I cannot find the web page I can't give you real numbers but I seem to remember that the speed of electrical in wire is somewhere around 1/10 the speed of light in a vacuum. This fact doesn't really impact this discussion in any meaningful way - I just wanted to make sure that everyone understood that electricity does NOT flow at the speed of light in a wire. It does, however, still go so fast that the difference is neglible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doudou Posted December 15, 2004 Share Posted December 15, 2004 if i remember well what i learnt during my studies, in a copper wire the speed of an electrical signal is about 66% of the light speed. but as you said, it s still so fast that the lenght of the wire is not a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironwoods Posted December 15, 2004 Share Posted December 15, 2004 Hi, I'm thinking more damage would be done with the excess, that has to be coiled up somewheres, as opposed to a shorter than the other scenario. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doudou Posted December 15, 2004 Share Posted December 15, 2004 of course if one of your wire run 36 times around your house, and the other make 1 meter you may have some problems Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodger Posted December 15, 2004 Share Posted December 15, 2004 At one point my system was set up such that the one wire was twice as long as the other - 18' and 9'. I heard no difference. I have read that lengths should be equal. That was in a treatise by I believe Tara, a Speaker Cable Manufacturer. That would be akin to a statement that one must take a vitamin every day in a study funded by Centrum. dodger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doudou Posted December 15, 2004 Share Posted December 15, 2004 of course a cable manufacturer will say to you that the cable should have the same lenght, so they sell more wire!! don t forget that if one wire is too long, what will you doo with the extra cable?you will place it behind something to hide it, it will act like a capacitor or a solenoid wich will degrade the signal.furthermore a cable act like an antena.the more long the cable is and the more interference you will get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Blacksmith Posted December 15, 2004 Share Posted December 15, 2004 ---------------- On 12/14/2004 10:28:27 PM bclarke421 wrote: Ok, now I'm curious. Bear with me here. C=186,000 ft/sec, right? (This is on the fly, as I'm on dial-up at home, and I don't feel like waiting to download the references.) ................................................. minor correction with your math, the speed of light is 186,000 MILES per second, not FEET per second so your numbers are too slow by a factor of 1,760 or the distance traveled by light in 1/1000 of a second in FEET is: 327360 FEET or 186 MILES. If the flow of electricty is 10 times slower in wire (just a WAG to make a point) then the distance traveled in 1/1000 second is 18.6 MILES! I think I need to shorten up my cables, they are about 12 feet too long and they might be causing problems with the stereo image Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark1101 Posted December 15, 2004 Share Posted December 15, 2004 I agree that there should be no audible difference. But I always cut my wires the same length even when one speaker might be 5 feet from the amp when the other is 20 feet away. The reason is that from time to time I move the system or rearrange the room. It is purely for convenience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wheelman Posted December 15, 2004 Share Posted December 15, 2004 ---------------- On 12/15/2004 3:28:54 AM boomac wrote: Wait a minute. Who would buy my used speaker wire? Either ya'll yankin my chain or I need to discuss a speaker wire upgrade. I did buy some expensive Kimber Kable Interconnect for between the pre amp and the CD player. For what I paid I better hear a difference or the boomac will be on the war path! ---------------- Well if it's descent and terminated with banana plugs or spades or not. Some people will give you money if you put them up in the audiogon classifieds. I bought my last pair there, and saved a bunch of money, because someone had the upgrade bug. Heard how good the first upgrade was then thought he wanted more. That's the thing it usually doesn't get much better than the first upgrade. In my opinion. Although I beleive speaker cable matters. It can get to the point where your buying gold shoestrings for a pair of holey shoes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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