I had contemplated this issue several years ago when I had to do the exact same thing for my speaker wire run in my living room. Left speaker is a 20’ run and the right speaker is 55’. Both cables are Canare 4s11. I considered running a loop for the left speaker but in the end I simply ran the length that was needed as my determination was that the voltage travels at the speed of light so how big of a difference could there really be? Well, I’ve been dealing with a sound imbalance ever since. I’ve tried swapping out the speakers and swapping out the amps just to eliminate that as a possibility for the difference. I’ve tried multiple toe in adjustments and speakers configurations. The best solution I came up with was to put a potted plant in front of the left speaker to help balance it out and it does work ok. My preamp does not have a balance control so this was the best I could do. TBH, it wasn’t until this morning and reading this thread that the one thing that I didn’t think of as a possibility was the difference in cable lengths for the speakers. As of now I am of the belief that the cable length can make a difference. My cables are run down through the floor and through a soffit in the basement ceiling that contains other runs of cabling and power wires so there are other variables as well. I do cross power at 90 degrees and am conscientious of my cabling runs. This system is mostly used for background listening and fills the room just fine but it is a struggle to get good sound. If this helps the OP in some way, please learn from my mistake as there’s no easy way to fix it now.
Speaker cable length.
I have a small weekend cabin in the country. I have a modest system there consisting of a set of Polk Audio Monitor 7 tower speakers, an NAD C316 BEE integrated, Schiit Modi 2 DAC and a Denon radio receiver. Sounds much better than you might expect.
Anyway, we recently got a fireplace installed. This means that there will be a speaker on each side of the fireplace with the components on the right side of the fireplace. That means the right speaker is within 2-3 feet of the amp/components. The cable for the left speaker will run under the house from the amp and then back into the house on the left of the fireplace because I don't want it on the floor in front of the hearth. This will require about 16’ of speaker cable.
Will the difference (16’ of cable to the left speaker vs maybe 4’ to the right one) make a difference on a modest system like this? If so, what to do about it? I certainly don’t want 16’ of cable piled on the floor on the right.
Thanks for any input.
P.S.: I have good quality bulk speaker cable from Transparent if that makes any difference.
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@wlutke …”Pull 16 ft under the cabin and loop it back up to the right speaker, if needed.”
Great idea!
Great sound quality comes from dozens of choices. They are additive. While you may not outright hear a difference between the equal lengths of speaker cable, it still may matter with the sound quality you ultimately get. Since you already have the cable it is worth being safe on the subject. |
- 44 posts total