[mca]

After reading "Speaker Cable poll...list your Giant Killer recommendations" in another post, I have decided to try some new cables in my theater room.
In my setup, the right speaker needs about 20' of wire to connect to the amp. The left speaker is only about 5' away and the center channel is about 12' away. Should I be worried about keeping my cables the same length or does is really matter?
I'm down to three sets of cable: Bolder M-80, VH Audio Star Quad or the mysterious Greg Straley cable. This will be used between my Butler 5150 and my Odyssey Lorelei/Nemesis speakers. Further comments on any of these three cables is welcome.

[Marbles]

You want to keep the front right/left the same length.  It doesn't matter for the center.

[ScottMayo]

After reading "Speaker Cable poll...list your Giant Killer recommendations" in another post, I have decided to try some new cables in my theater room.
In my setup, the right speaker needs about 20' of wire to connect to the amp. The left speaker is only about 5' away and the center channel is about 12' away. Should I be worried about keeping my cables the same length or does is really matter?

You want to keep any given cable as short as possible. The idea is to keep resisitance low. Two ways to keep resistance low: use a shorter wire or use a thicker wire. As long as the resistance is low, 20' is no worse than 5', and different lengths don't make a bit of difference.

[jeffreybehr]

"You want to keep any given cable as short as possible. The idea is to keep resisitance low. Two ways to keep resistance low: use a shorter wire or use a thicker wire. As long as the resistance is low, 20' is no worse than 5', and different lengths don't make a bit of difference."

I agree with Scott that different lengths have no negative audible affects and that I keep mine as short as possible.  I disagree about length making no difference if the resistance is low.  ALL cable has a sonic character, and the longer it is, the more that character is audible.

Keep 'em short, mca.

[ctviggen]

If it's true that all cable has a sonic character, then wouldn't it make sense to keep the lengths the same for each side?  Otherwise, there will be two different "sonic characters" for each speaker.  In the case of the original poster, he has a 5' and a 20' length.  I also have one speaker that's far away and one that's close to my amp.  I use two 16 foot cables (Bolder Cable Nitro Cables, cryoed).   I've not tried one short and one long cable to see if there would be any difference (Wayne's stuff is too expensive to test this way).  The 16' Bolder cables replaced 12' silver Signal Cables and are better.  (Though unlike most people on this board, I think that cables are minor upgrades and don't produce miracles.  Miracles are produced by Eighth Nerve's and Real Traps' products.)

[jeffreybehr]

"If it's true that all cable has a sonic character, then wouldn't it make sense to keep the lengths the same for each side? Otherwise, there will be two different "sonic characters" for each speaker. "

Nope.  Understand that cable can add only bad stuff (for instance edginess from the diode effect inherent in low-quality copper) and subtract good stuff--microscopic portions of YOUR music.  The conections add and subtract some fixed amount per SET of cables, but the cable is adding and subtracting an amount per unit of length.  Doesn't it make sense to you to add as little as possible?

[jules]

.... but so far nobody here has considered capacitance between pairs of speaker wires. I'm unable to give you any figures but this is probably a more significant influence than resistance as the latter can be tackled satisfactorily by wire size.  I agree with John about being wary of mumbo jumbo but capacitance over the length of two close and parallel wires, one carrying a signal to your speakers and one returning it from them is a real phenomenon which is going to be proportional to length.

jules

[Watson]

Given that a (my) human hair has a diameter of about .05 mm we can conclude that C. could use speaker cables that differ by MORE than 100 feet (ten times greater than he asked about) before the cable length difference would approach the acoustic effect of moving the speaker (or listener) just a
hair's width. In other words there would be no chance of this ever being
audible...unless you are certain that you can hear the difference in moving
one speaker one tenth of a hair's width.

Nonsense.  The argument you're quoting assumes that delay is the only variable involved with speaker cable length.  Delay is orders of magnitude less significant than any of the basic cable properties:  inductance, capacitance, shunt conductance, and series resistance.

At lengths of 100 feet, the contributions of any of the basic cable properties can become significant.  Even assuming zero capacitance and inductance, the series resistance of a 100 foot run of cable will dominate your amp's intrinsic damping factor in determining the damping factor of your system.

I'm not generally a "cable believer", but there comes a point where basic physics kicks in and its effects are audible.