stocktiki Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 Should the speaker cables to the left, right and center speakers be the same length, or does it not matter? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 You'll never hear a difference due to the length of a cable in a living room application. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mas Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 Here is a response from John Murphy regarding this issue that should suffice to address just about any transmission issue you might want to explore... And as Carl said, assuming you are using a sufficient gauge low resistance copper conductor cable for the length, don't worry about it and enjoy. Subj: The Effect of Speaker Cable Lengths (posted 29Jan01 to Bass List) C. asked: > To keep from curling up the speaker wires at one of my speakers, I'd like to > use unequal speaker wire lengths. One will be about 10' shorter than the > other (20'v.30'). Does this really matter? Am I better off using equal > lengths and folding up the extra wire? P. responded: > Without resorting to mathematics I would guess that 10 feet of 12 > awg wire is about equal to 1 -5 mm of positioning error. Error > includes movement of head. Luc then responded: > Sound = 340 m/s, electromagnetic waves = 300,000,000 m/s or roughly a > million times faster. 10 feet = 3 m, so the delay accoustically will be > about 3 millionth of a meter or 0.003 mm. In cables the speed of electrical > signals is slightly slower due to the insulator having a dielectric constant > of greater than 1, so maybe the accoustic delay would equal about 4 > thousands of a millimeter. Nothing to be concerned about I think. The > difference in signal level, because of the extra resistance of the 3 meters > extra cable, would be much bigger, but also way below the hearing threshold. I am pleased to report that, using mathematics and physics, I can confirm Luc's calculations. A 10 foot difference in the length of a speaker cable is approximately equivalent to an acoustic delay corresponding to 0.003 mm of displacement. Given that a (my) human hair has a diameter of about .05 mm we can conclude that C. could use speaker cables that differ by MORE than 100 feet (ten times greater than he asked about) before the cable length difference would approach the acoustic effect of moving the speaker (or listener) just a hair's width. In other words there would be no chance of this ever being audible...unless you are certain that you can hear the difference in moving one speaker one tenth of a hair's width. :-) But...the difference in DC resistance of C.'s unequal cables might begin to approach audibility thresholds depending on wire gage and the impedance characteristics of his speakers. I still wouldn't worry about it unless this were a serious research project where the results were intended for publication and would be subject to (razor sharp) anonymous peer review. For any of the popular audio magazines, on the other hand, you could say anything you wanted...mystical explanations are quite welcome in the popular press as they constitute a smoke screen of disinformation behind which dishonorable manufacturers hide to sell fantastically over priced products with a straight face...and buy lots of ad space. As always, the joke is on the unsuspecting consumer. My advice to all audio consumers is to be suspicious of unsubstantiated advertising claims, ...be VERY suspicious. Cheers! John ///////////////////////////////////// John L. Murphy Physicist/Audio Engineer True Audiohttp://www.trueaudio.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 ""we can conclude that C. could use speaker cables that differ by MORE than 100 feet (ten times greater than he asked about) before the cable length difference would approach the acoustic effect of moving the speaker (or listener) just a hair's width. In other words there would be no chance of this ever being audible.."" I'm happy to hear that. I compared 25ft of monster z-1 cable to 225ft of monster z-1 cable and it sounded fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 I would be more worried about the difference in inductance and resistance along the speaker wire, but even that is going to be minimal at best and will introduce changes that are far less than the manufacturing tolerances of your speakers... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay481985 Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 speed of light is very fast Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oblio Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 speed of light is very fast I seem to recall that the propogation delay in copper is on the order of 18 ns / foot, which is very fast indeed. The electron drift velocity, oddly enough is extremely slow, much slower than sound. Not that that matters, but it is an useless trivia item. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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