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Max length of IC's? Long IC's vs short SW

What's better sonically?

a) To run 4 foot unbalanced interconnects between my preamp and amp and 32 foot runs of speaker wire,

or

b) To run 9 - 12 foot unbalanced interconnects between my preamp and map and 12 foot runs of speaker wire?

Also: what's the max length I can go on unbalanced interconnects before I run into issues of resistance, inductance, capacitance, etc. that would significantly affect the sound?

Is there much of a difference between 9 foot unbalanced and 12 foot or 15 unbalanced?

Thanks.

Laurence
ldworet

Showing 1 response by ths364

ths364
181 posts
 
Most IC's have a spec for capacitance per foot. Longer IC's=more capacitance (generally means that the treble will be rolled off). Look for cabling that has low Capacitance per foot as far as IC's go.
Also, unbalanced cables are prone to picking up noise that you will be amplifying along with the signal from your source.
Speaker wires will have a much higher level signal moving through them, consequently a higher signal/noise ratio.
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