Absolutely cables should be same length, would you drive your car with different size tires? Cable designers spend much time with cable conductor design,winding to preserve time allignment of music signal! I must disagree with Hiwaves....the shorter the speaker cable, the better the sound. If you have equipment rack off to one side, it would be cheaper and sound better if you put amp between speakers with short cables and ran long interconnect back to pre-amp, especially if balanced interconnects can be used. Check prices for 12ft interconnects vs 12 ft speaker cables, much cheaper....regards Sam
Pros/Cons of Same Length Speaker Cables?
Like many others, my amplifier, cd player, rack, etc. is off to the side rather than between the two speakers. This means the cable length is different for each. I've heard some (dealers!) say the cable lengths should be identical for both speakers. Aside from the cost issue for good cables, isn't it bad to have too much cable coiled up behind the rack? Why have identical lengths if it means one of the speaker cables has more than 6 extra feet coiled up? I know that resistance can be an issue, but is this really an issue with one cable at 16' and the other at 9'? Thanks in advance for your advice