[Chicago]

Do speaker cables need to be the same length for the best sonic results?  I have read conflicting reports and I am getting ready to order Bryston cables.  My amp, pre-amp and source are in a separate room from my speakers so one run is much longer than the other.  The longest run is 30' and the other is maybe 16'.  The cables are routed through the basement so coiling one up is easy enough.

Thanks, Mike

[brucek]

Do speaker cables need to be the same length for the best sonic results?  I have read conflicting reports and I am getting ready to order Bryston cables.  My amp, pre-amp and source are in a separate room from my speakers so one run is much longer than the other.  The longest run is 30' and the other is maybe 16'.  The cables are routed through the basement so coiling one up is easy enough.

Thanks, Mike

The difference in lengths you indicate aren't significant enough to sonically affect your sound, but I would make them all the same length to allow for future changes.

brucek

[James Tanner]

Do speaker cables need to be the same length for the best sonic results?  I have read conflicting reports and I am getting ready to order Bryston cables.  My amp, pre-amp and source are in a separate room from my speakers so one run is much longer than the other.  The longest run is 30' and the other is maybe 16'.  The cables are routed through the basement so coiling one up is easy enough.

Thanks, Mike

Hi Mike

Electrons in wire travel at the speed of light - so 14 feet would not make a difference - but being obsessed with symmetry as I am it would drive me nuts knowing there was a difference

Also maybe consider looping the excess rather than coiling as there may be some level om magnetic field build up around a looped cable???

james

[decal]

but being obsessed with symmetry as I am it would drive me nuts knowing there was a difference

Spoken like a true salesman !!!!

[werd]

You would be ok with at 20 feet length. At that 30 feet length impedance can factor in, wouldn't use anything less than 20 feet. But I would get the 30 feet on each side for resell issues. Oddball lengths will make them hard to sell if need be.

[underdawg]

My two cents is they must be close to maintain the same electrical properties, such as inductance, capacitance, and resitance. Dramatic changes in lengths would affect those measurements and could cause sound differences.

[underdawg]

I agree would be hard to resell if lengths were different, unless you got lucky and someone actullay wanted or needed different lengths.

[Chicago]

Thanks to all.  I hadn't really thought about resale and I like James logic - anal like me.  I ordered two 30' from my dealer this afternoon.  I am really happy with the sets of Bryston interconnects.

I forgot to ask this, my 803 D2 are 8 ohms with a minimum of 3 ohms, so I gather 12 AWG at 30' is fine?  Still time to make a change if necessary.

Mike 

[srb]

Although some use 8 -10 gauge wire, I use 11 gauge for my 6 ft. cables.  Maybe even that is overkill, but you can plug your numbers into this Speaker Wire Calculator and see the difference in voltage drop and power delivered to your speaker at your lowest impedance with different gauge wires.

Steve

[BrysTony]

Thanks to all.  I hadn't really thought about resale and I like James logic - anal like me.  I ordered two 30' from my dealer this afternoon.  I am really happy with the sets of Bryston interconnects.

I forgot to ask this, my 803 D2 are 8 ohms with a minimum of 3 ohms, so I gather 12 AWG at 30' is fine?  Still time to make a change if necessary.

Mike

Mike,

The Bryston speaker wire has four 12 gauge wires.  Unless you are biwiring you would be using two of them for the positive and two for negative.  Two 12 gauge wires together is the equivalent of a 9 gauge wire.  You will be OK.

Tony

[Chicago]

Mike,

The Bryston speaker wire has four 12 gauge wires.  Unless you are biwiring you would be using two of them for the positive and two for negative.  Two 12 gauge wires together is the equivalent of a 9 gauge wire.  You will be OK.

Tony

What happens if I bi-wire?  I was going to bi-wire because the cost is the same and I figured it couldn't hurt, but maybe that is flawed logic.

SRB - thanks for the link, nice tool.

Thanks, Mike

[jneutron]

Electrons in wire travel at the speed of light - so 14 feet would not make a difference - but being obsessed with symmetry as I am it would drive me nuts knowing there was a difference

Also maybe consider looping the excess rather than coiling as there may be some level om magnetic field build up around a looped cable???

james

Actually, the electrons drift in the cable at speeds like mm per hour.

A signal which has current and voltage consistent with the cable's characteristic impedance will travel at the cable's propagation velocity, for typical zip style that is about half lightspeed.

A signal in a zip style cable where the load is very low impedance in comparison to the cable's impedance, driven by a low impedance source, will exhibit a signal delay which is dependent on the impedance of the load at any frequency.  If the load matches the line (about 150 ohms), the velocity will be half lightspeed, if the load is 8, the effective delay will be anywhere from 5 to 50 or 100 uSec depending on length.

A difference of 15 feet could impact imaging in a horrible way depending on the impedance variation of the speaker vs frequency.

I recommend same length.

If a zip is coiled, there will be no additional inductance.  The opposing conductors and their currents will create equal and opposite solenoidal fields, netting a zero inductance increase.

If a 4 conductor wire is used, wire opposite conductors in parallel.  This will halve the characteristic impedance of the cable.

jn

[robb]

Its nice to know that my Transparent Reference cables are tuned to the specific impedance characteristic of my equipment, to the length of the cable, and to insure accurate phase and group delay.