Speaker cable length

Hello,

A neighbour is selling atohm zef max speaker cable for 1/3 of the price, however the cables do not have the same length : 2.7m and 1.9m.

Is there an audible issue in having 2 cables with such a length discrepancy ?

Regards.
Ben

 

In my experience, no.

 

You need the cables to be the same length. The interactions between speaker and amplifier are complex, forming a type of network that impacts the audio.

Maybe just cut the 2.7m down to 1.9m!

My OCD would never let me have unequal lengths of anything!

 

No, don't worry about it. Here's why...

Given the design, looks like this is lower capacitance cable with slightly higher inductance if we were to measure it. Not that these picofarads and microhenries matter when we're looking at only 3m (10') within audio frequencies. If anything it is the resistance that is most important for speaker cables.

The Zef Max Speaker Cable according to the web page is ~10AWG pure copper for it's "central core". For a 0.8m length difference, this means it's 2.7mΩ difference if not less between the 2 cables. Assuming conservatively that your speakers are a 4Ω load, this means that the longer cable would have a -0.0059dB attenuation compared to the other side.

You're not going to be able to hear a difference of this microscopic magnitude with a signal velocity close to the speed of light. ;-)

Best is just to borrow them and have a listen for yourself. Assuming connectors are clean, good contacts, I bet you won't hear anything of concern. (I routinely use asymmetrical lengths of even smaller gauge 12AWG cables without concern...)

 

That's a joke right???

 

Probably not audible. But having speakers of different lengths can radically reduce the resale value.

 

Audio travels through speaker cables at nearly the speed of light. The cable length difference would have to be in the 10s of thousands of miles for it to be audible. And at that point I’m sure many other bigger problems would present themselves. You’ll be fine.

 

Yeah, like the cables wouldn't fit in your room! Actually the speed of light has nothing significant to do with it, the length affects the resistance, capacitance, inductance. The engineer part of my brain says that in reality small length differences won't matter...but at the same time it would bother me all the time. OCD, as @DavidR says. @Tartifless personally I'd be buying big gauge of Speaker Cable at Blue Jeans Cable (in equal lengths, ha ha) and not worrying about it. I'm too much the engineer to believe in super expensive speaker cables. (I did once hear a clear difference between cables, however the setup was an extremely high end system, the Apogee Scintilla speakers are like 1 ohm, and one of the cables was MIT which had passive networks which of course can affect the sound.)

 

I'd say unless you are OCD, and many folks are, it shouldn't matter. Yeah, there's a little more or less inductance/capacitance/etc. but a 0.8m difference ... OK I haven't run numbers on it ... but if it bothers you, pass and get matched ones !!!! Certainly can cut one down and reterminate ... but I'd say get them and let them play for a few days/weeks ... then maybe swap sides and see if anything changes! If consistent, changing from 'side to side', cut one down to size and reterminate ...

 

The cables are advertised as 12.5 gauge. Let's pessimistically say 13 gauge.
The difference in cables is 0.8m. Let's pessimistically say 1m.

The resistance of 1m of 13ga cable is 0.0066 ohms. Both conductors is 0.013 ohms. When the extra length of cable is inserted as a voltage divider between your amp and 8 ohm speakers, the loss is 0.014dB. So no, not audible.

 

In 60cm you'll be very blessed and cursed at the same time if you can hear it, if you were talking several meters perhaps.
Are you sure that is long enough for you? The 1.9 m section would be a very tight fit for many people unless the cable never touches the floor.

 

I've never had anything but equal length speaker cables, ever since I started with music systems in the 1970s.

There might be a difference, there might not, but I've never found myself thinking that I wanted to take the chance with my hard-earned cash, either by ... a- spending money on a mismatched pair, and having to buy another, or b- cutting some to unequal lengths myself, only to find that I'd have to either re-cut or buy again, should I find that I don't like the result from the unmatched.

Don't take the chance. If you buy the unmatched pair, you'll spend the next year or so wondering if that slight imbalance that you think you can hear, but aren't sure about, is caused by the cable or something else. Just get matched lengths so you KNOW that will not be a factor.

 

No.
Having the same length is for OCD purposes only, but has no other purpose.

 

I currently have 2.5m on each side and it's way too much already...
1.9m will be enough for the left speaker which is literally 10cm from the amp

 

My amp allows delay setup and has room correction automatic setup, so I am quite sure it would automatically handle this if rerunning the calibration !

 

Then if you like the cable and the price is good don't worry about such a small difference.

 

Nope.

 

No audible issues of any kind.

 

Nope - your amp can’t detect the difference in the cable length. To measure any difference you’d need thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of highly specialized equipment, and even then the detectable difference will have no significant meaning and is orders of magnitude below the threshold of audibility.

 

I know that I wouldn't be able to hear any difference ... but just knowing that the lengths are different would drive me nuts !
The OCD would be launched into overdrive ...

 

Doesn't that render your original question moot, then?

 

Electricity need time to travel the extra meter so both cables need to the the same length else it’ll be out of phase. I often position myself exactly the same distance between the two speakers to avoid sound from one of them getting to my ears too fast.

 

Yes, I realised later

 

Speaker Cable Deal Alert!! 04-03-2021
Don't miss out on this one if you don't have a quality speaker cable yet...

 

It's not ideal but you won't hear a difference.