[Bhu108]

Do the left and right speaker cables need to be equal lengths in a stereo? Your thoughts, experience, etc?
My rack in off the the side of my left speaker I have equal lengths which is a big coiled mess, My Cables are very stiff XLO's  bi-wires to Paragon Acoustic Regent speakers so that is a lot of extra cable. If they weren't such a colossal improvement over the borrowed, bi-wired MIT "firehoses" I wouldn't put up with them.
Bi-wiring speakers? That is another post

[lokie]

No

[toocool4]

No, if you are not talking huge difference. But if you want everything to work as intended, then yes.
If your system is good enough, then you will hear a difference if the lengths are vastly different. Personally, I would keep them the same length.

Bi-Wiring a complete waste of time, Bi-Amping now that is worth the money. Only if your system is good enough to show the difference.
My new speakers are made to order, the only thing I changed from spec was I requested single terminals as I had no intention in Bi-Wiring.

[SMA]

My previous system had the rack off to the side so I Used a 7’ and 15’ length of Anticables 3.1 (In fact, they are for sale on US. Audio Mart right now if you want different length wire). Anticables advertises no detriment to different lengths and I did not notice any, but I sincerely doubt I would have noticed a problem with any other cable.

[Zuman]

My left speaker cable is 7' and my right cable is 12' for the same reason (my rack is to the left of the left speaker). The left cable could be shorter, but I didn't want the difference in cable lengths to be too extreme. My speakers are about 8' apart.
The speaker cables are Audio Art SC-5 ePlus Cryo, and I've tried but cannot hear any difference resulting from the variation in cable lengths. I spoke with Audio Art's designer before ordering the cables, and he was confident that there would be no audible difference.
I believe that I have a highly-resolving system and use Hapa Audio and M101 analog and digital interconnects.

[Sparky14]

Yes. Electrons travel at 671 million miles per hour. So if 1 cable is 10 feet longer than the other, that speaker will get the signal .00000001 second late.

Gives me a headache just thinking about it.

[viggen]

you have to move the speaker with the longer cable about 1 inch forward for each foot it's longer than the other to compensate for the timing imbalance.

[VinceT]

Yes. Electrons travel at 671 million miles per hour. So if 1 cable is 10 feet longer than the other, that speaker will get the signal .00000001 second late.

Gives me a headache just thinking about it.

DSP can fix that

[FullRangeMan]

We are a sane Forum no obsessed audiophile.
Both options are valid with a inexpensive cable.

[lokie]

A slight move in speaker positioning, I'm talking millimeters, would more than make up for large differences in speaker length.

[S Clark]

If you can hear a volume imbalance, lean an inch one way or the other to compensate.   

[BobM]

I had cables of different lengths at one time. Not substantially different, so I didn;t hear a problem. But if you are talking 50' for one side and 5' for the other then you may have a problem.

Now on another note, I also tried making cables from CAT5 wire. There I heard a really bad smearing of the sound. It was likely due to the different twists per inch of the underlying wire inside the cables. They use different twists to reduce interaction between pairs to offset interferance. This definitely did not result in optimum sound for a signal travelling along those differently twisted pairs, and probably different length of those pairs due to the varying twist amounts.

[mick wolfe]

Do the left and right speaker cables need to be equal lengths in a stereo? Your thoughts, experience, etc?
My rack in off the the side of my left speaker I have equal lengths which is a big coiled mess, My Cables are very stiff XLO's  bi-wires to Paragon Acoustic Regent speakers so that is a lot of extra cable. If they weren't such a colossal improvement over the borrowed, bi-wired MIT "firehoses" I wouldn't put up with them.
Bi-wiring speakers? That is another post

I'd simply deal with the "coiled mess". Things can change over time and you might need the full length down the road. Plus shortening the one cable for convenience will leave you with a set of cables that will be pretty much impossible sell in the future.

[DaveC113]

There are very easily calculable differences in LCR (inductance, capacitance and resistance) and this will absolutely result in different damping factors. The amp's control over the woofer cone will be different .

The reason for this is speakers are very low impedance devices so their impedance vs the speaker cable's LCR is significant. For example a 4-ohm speaker with a 14g cable... 2.5 ohm per 1k ft, so a 10 ft run would be .025 ohm x2 = .05 ohm. Doesn't seem like a lot, but it adds to the amplifier's output impedance, which is very low, often something like .01 ohm.

So DF (damping factor) = Speaker Impedance/amp output impedance = 4/.01 = 400. This is typical. Now let's add that 14g SC... DF = 4/(.01+.05) = 67

Is this audible? Maybe, depends on the mechanical Q of the driver vs electrical Q, but for sure it's not ideal.

Then there's the effect of inductance and capacitance, ime a higher inductance is very audible, so if you have a SC that is high inductance, such as a SC with separate leads or the poorly thought out idea of keeping the + and - leads separated by a fixed distance, the difference in SC lengths is more likely to be audible.

As far as SCs in general, YMMV a lot. This is because the environment a SC is used in is highly variable, with no set standards for load impedance or reactivity. This means a non-ideal SC may work better than an ideal one because its compensating for a non-ideal speaker load. Also, amp outputs vary a lot too. This is why some have good luck with otherwise very poor SC designs, such as SCs with totally separate + and - leads, and others do not, and why one may prefer such an objectively poor design... in the context of the system its used in, it may actually be better than an objectively better design as the high inductance helps make the load the amp sees more resistive and less reactive.   

So anyways...  Definitely stick with SCs that are the same length. @mick wolfe is correct...they provide more flexibility for future setups and will be MUCH easier to sell.

[Early B.]

We are a sane Forum no obsessed audiophile.

This thread proves otherwise.

Hey OP -- don't worry about varying cable lengths. Just plug and play.

[marvda1]

If you ever want to sell them, they will be harder to sell.

[max190]

A slight move in speaker positioning, I'm talking millimeters, would more than make up for large differences in speaker length.

Winner!

[FullRangeMan]

Yours opinion dont count.
The opinion that will decide are wife.

[FullRangeMan]

This thread proves otherwise.

Hey OP -- don't worry about varying cable lengths. Just plug and play.

Forgot  to  type  LOL.
This site are filled with audiophiles but they refuse to admit they are, they own top fancy equips always in constant change for improvement.