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Cable lengths

This is a 2 part question. First I’m wondering if cable lengths make a difference in sound for better or worse. My thinking is that shorter is better and longer would be worse. I’m using all Straightwire  Crescendo speaker cable and IC xlr. For my IC xlr are a 1 m pair. But am wanting to put my CD player by my listening chair which is about 15 ft from my ARC Ref 6. Which I will need about a 5 meter pair. And about $4000 new. I really love the bass with the Crescendos especially with my Krell Fpb 600. But are very hard to find on the used market for them that long. The longest I’ve seen was 4 m. Also $4000 is steep for me to spend right now on ICs. Could anyone recommend a very good xlr IC 5 meter on the used market for about $1500 that has very good bass like the Crescendo? 
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Showing 3 responses by sleepwalker65

sleepwalker65's avatar
sleepwalker65
832 posts
 
Look for cables that don’t use the “signal ground” as a shield. That’s a major issue, especially with phono cables. 
sleepwalker65's avatar
sleepwalker65
832 posts
 
5 meters is trivial for a shielded balanced cable carrying line level signal. You might be worried about increased cable capacitance from 20 picofarads to 100 or so picofarads, but it’s only amounting to 318,000 Ohms of capacitive reactance at 5kHz instead of 1,591,000 Ohms. Given that the output impedance of your CD player is likely around 110 ohms, and that the decreased capacitive reactance is three orders of magnitude greater than the output impedance of the CD player, it would be impossible to detect a difference in high frequency response.
sleepwalker65's avatar
sleepwalker65
832 posts
 
The majority of the cost in making cables is paying the human that prepares the ends and solders the connectors on.  I know this because I make my own cables. The raw cable is relatively inexpensive, then next most costly ingredient is the connectors. Getting good quality doesn’t have to cost two arms and a leg if you make your own. 
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