Speaker Cables, One side longer- bad idea?

There won't be an audible (probably not even measurable) difference with the lengths you mention. Marakanetz's comments are correct in theory, but you would only need to worry if the 2 sides were really different. I asked this question of a well-known cable maker/designer (really nice guy) at a show a few years ago and his explanation left me with the conviction that a 1.5 to 1 ratio or less should be fine. OTOH, a dealer I know has done blind tests with 5 and 1 meter runs of a mid-priced high end cable and none of his sophisticated customers have been able to tell a difference in sound.

If someone wants to illustrate the difference with numbers, that might be interesting.

Hmm. Perhaps guessing again might be in order.

Nicely done Bwhite. How about multi-miked recordings with mics out of phase with each other?

Now someone want to explain the extent to which damping factors will differ one side from the other and the affect on the sound we will hear?

Oh, I went back and read the beginning of your first post Bwhite. Attribution?

Raguirre, yes, as Marakanetz said above, RLC, resistance, inductance and capacitance will vary with length, or so I have been told. The question is by how much and what effect that would have on the sound. If something goes up by 50% from .011 to .016 whatever the units are (not 1.1 % distortion to 1.6, that would be audible and not what I mean,) will you hear a difference? I think not.

Now, with ridiculously different lengths of zip wire you may hear a difference because, and I rely on what others have told me since I am not an engineer, zip wire has higher measured inductance and capacitance.

The best reasons for keeping equal lengths are flexibility in rearranging your furniture and resale value. Very hard to sell mismatched cables.