Longer speaker cables or interconnects


I have a feeling that this may be a topic that has already been discussed to death, but the only thread I’ve found so far is one at Stereophile.

I will I’ll be moving into my new home with a new semi dedicated semi anechoic listening room, and I am just realizing now that maybe the 25 ft speaker cable runs vs the 3 to 4 ft interconnect runs that I was used to in my old NYC loft for decades is maybe not the optimal ratio.

I presume that that I don’t want a long interconnect between the turntable and the preamp.

I’m looking for various points of views and justifications for them. Remember, one caveat is that I’m the kind of guy who will spend only a moderate amount of dollars for interconnects and speaker cable. Thank you all.
unreceivedogma

Showing 5 responses by almarg

Almarg 6-18-2018
Looks like David Kalb is Danny’s brother, as indicated on Danny’s website. He looks to be a good deal younger than what I’d expect Danny to look like in recent years, though. In any event, it appears that Steph Curry has nothing on him :-)
Steakster, after doing a bit of additional research I'm thinking that the Danny Kalb whose site links to David Kalb's basketball video may be a different Danny Kalb than the Blues Project person.  Here is the Wikipedia writeup on the Blues Project's Danny Kalb, which doesn't appear to mention any of the lengthy discography shown at the first link.

Best,
-- Al
Thanks, Steakster.

Looks like David Kalb is Danny’s brother, as indicated on Danny’s website. He looks to be a good deal younger than what I’d expect Danny to look like in recent years, though. In any event, it appears that Steph Curry has nothing on him :-)

Great quotes re The Remainders. I hadn’t heard of them previously.

The majority of my listening is to classical music, but the Blues Project’s "Projections" album is one of my all-time favorite rock albums. Although I like just about all of the songs on it, my favorite is "Steve’s Song," sung by Steve Katz, who as you are no doubt aware was also an original member of both the Blues Project and BS&T.  I also like "Sometimes in Winter" very much, sung by Steve on the self-titled BS&T album.

Thanks again. Best regards,
-- Al
stock 604B, C, and D were 16 ohms. They can be modified to 8. When I had them re-coned, I kept them at 16. Jon said the Futterman much prefer the 16.
Even better! 

I had seen the 8 ohm number in the listing for the 604C near the middle of this page, but a further search confirms that 16 ohms is correct.  Thanks for pointing that out.

Regards,
-- Al 
OK. Given that, and pending any further info you might be able to provide after the equipment is unboxed, and given also that the 604c is specified as an 8 ohm driver, I suspect that with this particular equipment what would be best is:

-- Connect Output 1 to the amps via the shortest possible cable length. And preferably with cables having low capacitance, for example Blue Jeans LC-1 (12 pf/foot).

-- Connect Output 2 to the sub’s crossover/amplifier via whatever cable length is necessary. If the output impedance of Output 1 with the cap upgrade is anything remotely close to the original 100K spec it would not work well with the sub.

-- Connect the speakers to the amps via whatever cable length is necessary.

Generally speaking, low speaker impedance (which is not the case here) tends to increase the importance of minimizing speaker cable length. High output impedance of a component providing a line-level signal (which is certainly the case here) tends to increase the importance of minimizing interconnect length (although much less so in the case of a sub, for which cable effects on the treble region are unimportant). The use of unbalanced as opposed to balanced interconnections also tends to increase the importance of minimizing interconnect length.

Again generally speaking, my reading of the many previous threads in which the long speaker cable/short interconnect vs. short speaker cable/long interconnect subject has been discussed has been the same as yours, that "the preponderance of opinion is to put the amps near the speakers" (quoting from one of your earlier posts). However the specifics of your particular equipment appear to greatly overshadow any such generalities. Bill (Grannyring) had it right!


Good luck. Regards,
-- Al
Unreceivedogma, it appears that your preamp provides two RCA outputs. "Output 1," at least in stock form, has an EXTREMELY high output impedance of 100K, that was apparently suitable for use with a matching Beard power amp, but very definitely would not be suitable for driving long cables or a majority of other amps. "Output 2" has a specified output impedance of 600 ohms, although I wouldn't be surprised if that number rose to considerably higher values at deep bass frequencies.

Also, it appears that your sub has an external crossover/amplifier, with a fairly low input impedance of 20K. I don't know what the input impedance of your amps may be, but I suspect it is relatively high.

Before providing any suggestions, my questions at this point are:

1)How are you connecting the OTL amps and the sub's crossover/amplifier to the preamp? If one is connected to "Output 1" of the preamp and the other to "Output 2," which is connected to which?

2)By any chance do you know if the capacitor upgrade that was performed on the preamp included the output coupling capacitors?

3)And if so, do you know what the values of the new output coupling capacitors are, i.e., the number of uF (microFarads)?

4)If you know the input impedance of the amps, that would also be relevant information.

Also, a minor correction for the record, if I may: The musician you referred to is Al Kooper, not "Cooper." As you may be aware, also, prior to his BS&T days he was a member of the Blues Project, a great group IMO!

Regards,
-- Al