Speaker Wire Question

gjgman · 03-16-2007, 03:27 AM

Should the lenghts on the wire be uniform??
I have a situation where I must make a run of about 40' for one of my surrounds the other surround is about 8 feet less..should I make both lenghts 40' or could I just cut the wire to the actual lenght needed?

Jeff Gatie · 03-16-2007, 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gjgman

Should the lenghts on the wire be uniform??
I have a situation where I must make a run of about 40' for one of my surrounds the other surround is about 8 feet less..should I make both lenghts 40' or could I just cut the wire to the actual lenght needed?

Just cut them to fit. It's a salesman inspired myth that the wires need to be uniform in length, especially at those relatively short distances. Any effect due to resistance is negligible and the old "it will ensure the sounds hit your ears at the same time" BS is . . . well . . . BS.

Wayne A. Pflughaupt · 03-16-2007, 09:37 PM

Quote:

Any effect due to resistance is negligible

Now “negligible” it is will depend on the gauge of the wire. It might not be an issue with say, 12 ga. wire, but with 18 ga. I wouldn’t be as confident, especially with lengths as drastically different as this.

Theoretically, they should be the same length, because the added resistance can make a difference in the sound of some speakers, especially speakers with drivers that are 4-ohm or less.

Practically, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to hear a difference, even with lengths as different as this.

All things considered I’d prefer to have them the same length or close to it – at least with the main L/R speakers. The surrounds aren’t nearly as critical, so I wouldn’t worry much about it. At worse you might have to bump the volume of the long-cable channel up a notch.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt



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