I am using a 36" Ridge Street Audio- Poiema speaker cable and they work great! Don't spend any more money than you have to.There are others that may say you have to go with a long speaker cable,but I am not of that camp. |
8 ft. is a common prefrab length. Shorter is no problem. |
the thing about using shorter custom lengths is when the upgrade bug bites you again you are limiting the number of people who might want to buy your used cables. |
Thanks for the advice gentlemen. I am even thing about trying Anti cables first to see how these work. I guess I am curious.
Russ |
One thought.... Gregg Straley Reality cables!!! |
It is generally recommended to never use less that 8' of cable. |
Just make sure both channels are the same length. |
In this case only I have read repeatedly use long interconnects, to your amps then the shorter the speaker cable the better.
As far as imparting warmth using the cable's capacitance, it would take a bigger delta than 4 to 8. The gauge and alloy the cable uses will probably have a greater effect. |
>>It is generally recommended to never use less that 8' of cable.<<
By whom? |
Cardas is a darker cable the Anaylis-Plus. I'd try something different! |
Audiofeil,
The primary source of the 8 ft. minimum speaker cable length wisdom, is Pierre Sprey with Mapleshade. However, there may be others who believe that.
Quote from Mapleshade's website:
NEVER use speaker cables shorter than 8'. Amazingly, 4' sounds much worse than 8'. Contrary to common belief, shorter interconnects (2 m or less) and longer speaker cables sound WAY BETTER than the oppositebased on extensive head-to-head tests.
Link:
http://mapleshaderecords.com/audioproducts/freeaudiotips.php |
And there are many who dispute Mr. Sprey's findings as being taken as some kind of definitive law. It may have very well been true for the system and cables used in his tests. I'm sure there are many of us who have found contradictions to this. So I really only object to the statement that "it is generally recommended". More acurately it should be "some recommend". |
>>The primary source of the 8 ft. minimum speaker cable length wisdom, is Pierre Sprey with Mapleshade.<<
I've spoken with 3 manufacturers today regarding this issue and all of them consider the 8' minimum position hogwash. These are folks that own, engineer, and build cables for their livelihood. I tend to believe them.
Personally, I've never heard longer speaker cables sound better in any of my systems. |
Just to clarify my post, my experience does not coincide with Mr. Sprey's recommendation. My speaker cables are 6 feet long and sound just fine. There are lots of folks happily using 4 ft. speaker cables with monoblock amps.
"Dielectric, capacitance and inductance are important properties in cable design. These electrical properties must be kept as low as possible, therefore permitting a very wide frequency bandwidth and fast electronic flow."
-Robert Lee, Acoustic Zen
One way to help keep capacitance, inductance, resistance and dielectric as low as possible would be to use short cables. I can't remember reading any technical reasoning for the 8 ft. minimum length and would be very interested to hear some of the EE folks chime in. |
I knew what you meant, Mitch. I've also heard that position from Mapleshade before. I'm also an EE, but to be honest the last people I would ask about cables are those from the electrical engineering community. All you get is a regirgitation of math equations we learned to model the electrical properties of stuff. Funny thing is none of those terms account for what we hear in the end. That's not to say there is no importance to the theory, but in my experience it does depend on system components and which cables one tries. Synergy is the most important term and that can only be measured by listening.
So have fun and experiment with as many cables as you can get your hands on.
Dan |
Well, I am an EE also, but tend to use simple logic before delving into any analysis.
Logic says active speakers must use cable lengths of less than a foot, and I never heard of any drawbacks. |
Perhaps the 8 ft reference simply evolved from the average distance people tend to place speakers apart, allowing for plenty of slack so as not to strain the terminals at either end. Just my theory anyway...
You can't make a short cable longer, but if a cable is a little too long, it's easy enough to hide the excess, or have the cable shortened.
From my limited conversations with a speaker cable manufacturer, I've been advised the shorter the better, as this reduces capacitance, resistance & interference.
Then again, I recently shortened my cables by 3 feet with no discernable change to the sound, so who knows?... |
Thanks, Carl!!
It is refreshing to read a practical response! |
Of course...ask Pierre @ Mapleshade...if you talk to him long enough....he invented the 2 channel stereo system !!!!! Ask him...he tell ya.... |
