Using balance to compensate for speaker distance

I'm in essential agreement with Bob. Although I would say give it a try, and see if the resulting sound is satisfactory to you.

The balance control will allow you to compensate for the slight volume difference between the two speakers that may occur due to their different distances from the listening position. However the arrival time difference (which cannot be compensated for with the balance control) is likely to be more significant, and will result in what are called comb filtering effects on that part of the signals which are common to the two speakers (the mono component of the signals). I believe the subjective result of that will be a slight cloudiness or loss of clarity. But see how it sounds to you -- all of that may be minor enough to be acceptable.

I wouldn't worry about the cable length difference, unless the difference is really extreme and your speakers have very low impedances at some frequencies, which might increase the significance of the differences in resistance and inductance between the two sets of cables.

I don't know what "butt connector" refers to either.

Good luck!

-- Al

A butt connector is a device to connect two wires end-to-end.

Kal

I would not use a Butt connector;what kind of cable are you using and what length do you need?
Ralph from Atmasphere has a spool of fulton gold that he is giving away for the cost of shipping;this cable in its day was extremely recommended and really started the cable era of audio as we know it today;so if you are casually listening to music this cable may work fine for you.
You can email Ralph using his user name Atmasphere if interested;he has been answering several threads lately on horn speakers and balanced cables where his offer for the spool is.

Ordinarily I would certainly advise against unequal length cabling and absolutely discourage butt connectors whatsoever. And I surely wouldn't place speakers on a wall mounted shelf. You would have to buy more cable? So you buy more!
Even at $80 per cable foot, I still bought the extra 10 feet because that's the proper approach.
Specifics of this rig aren't posted; however looking at your previous posts it seems possible that this is a budget system, already so compromised to the point that it hardly matters anyway. You just want to play some music; refinement isn't your goal? No offense (you did encourage *any* responses) but at this basic level you might as well just do whatever you want with it, because it will make very little if any difference at all.