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  3. 126087-107

Shorten my speaker cables?

For years I loved in a home where the only practical place to put all my gear was along a wall,to the side of the speakers. That necessitated a longer run of speaker cable- specifically, for a number of years I've used, quite successfully, Analysis Plus Oval 9's, in a 16 foot run. 

Now I've moved and I my gear is along the front wall between the speakers, so my 16 foot run is more than I need. Been toying with the idea of shorter cables, and wondered if I would hear any benefit in having my 16 foot run cut and reterminated resulting in a 10 foot run plus a spare 6 foot run which I'm sure at some point I would use for something.

The other thought was perhaps to switch speaker cables all together. My balanced ICs are all Acoustic Zen Matrix II and I've heard good things about the AZ satori speaker cables. 
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kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,394 posts
 
I have Satoris (shotgun) for a while and they are wonderful.  In comparison to my previous AQ Indigo they have fuller lower midrange (male voices, cello), being faster with silky smooth trebles.  Much better overall.  I considered Oval 9's an read many reviews.  Satoris supposed to be a little better while Oval 9s are a little bass heavy.  I would definitely take advantage of shorter cables, but wouldn't cut.  Sell them - you can get better shorter cables.  Re-terminating can also be difficult.  Satoris are very thick (I think it looks cool) since they consist of bunch of individually insulated strands in helical twist on hollow tube.  One of the strands is not solid, but stranded (tiny wires).  I removed original bananas, cleaned, crimped spades and then soldered. 

I also replaced AQ King Cobra with Acoustic Zen Absolute (both 0.5m XLR).  Absolutes are more refined, have better resolution, blacker background etc.  Overkill for my modest system, but it was very good price.  
czarivey
5,680 posts
 
Oval 9’s are very easy to re-terminate and sell the rest of unwanted length. You will need heavy duty crimping tool.
That's the one I use: http://www.parts-express.com/heavy-duty-modular-crimp-tool-rj45--150-054
sbank's avatar
sbank
3,378 posts
 
The other thing that will help besides going to shorter speaker cables is to go to longer interconnects and move the gear away from in between the speakers. Cheers,
Spencer
ebm
9,311 posts
 
Im using 2 Meters speaker cable and 21Ft interconnect cable as i don't want my rack between the speaker many people say more than 2 Meters is no good.

stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,254 posts
 

"many people say more than 2 Meters is no good."

That is a bunch of bologna.  I have been using 22 foot runs of speaker cable in my main system for over 21 years and my system sounds killer.  just for the heck of it, 5 years ago I moved my equipment closer to my speakers and tried a 5 foot run of the same cable.  After going back and forth over a couple of weeks and with a few of my audio buddy's listening as well, we came to the conclusion that there was absolutely no difference in sound between a 5 foot run and 22 foot run.

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