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Unequal Speaker Cable Lengths - a solution from Cerious Technologies

For as long as I can remember my systems have been on an opposite wall from my speakers. This has led to many problems, the least of which is how to deal with the excess cable from one leg/run. It also runs the cable cost up since I've needed pairs approaching 17 ft for my last system. My latest system requires 13 ft to the farthest speaker. After considering many of the leading cables I was leaning towards the new Audience AU24 SX. A four meter pair would have cost me around $4000. 

So what are the options? As always, if I go with the matched pair I'll have to coil the excess and find a way to support it off the floor as I'm a great believer in acrylic cable risers. If I find a company to make me a pair of unmatched lengths, is there a difference in sound, imaging, balance, etc.? You will find many parties on both sides of this argument. I've got one foot over the line - to the side that believes speaker cables should be equal length.

Thankfully, many companies are willing to make unequal pairs and then re-terminate the long one at a later date for a price. This solves the re-sell issue and Audience is in the group that will do this. That still doesn't solve the sonic differences of unequal pairs if they exist.  I've also always thought that a coiled speaker cable could potentially act as a RFI/EMI attracting antenna. If so, is there also a downside to equal length pairs used in this configuration? I suppose that depends on the length of the excess.

That brings me to a solution that I found due to the many posts on Audiogon regarding Cerious Technologies. After reading the glowing reviews about their speaker cables, I sent an email to Bob Grost from Cerious regarding these questions. Here is his response:


"We make "matched" pairs of speaker cables in different lengths (we are currently making a set that are 6 foot/15 foot...). What sets us apart is that we do not run our wire off of a spool. No matter what wire you use a different length of 6 ft/15 ft will sound different and screw up the imaging. We use an 8 foot length as a reference and build conductors to a specific length that perform exactly like the reference. So...a 15 foot long conductor of GE SC will be 1.75 times the effective gauge as an 8 foot conductor. Your case of a 8 ft/13 ft set will image dead center on vocals unlike standard wire based conductors. A set of GE SC in 8 ft/13 ft lengths would be $799 set."


My first thought was $799? - what a steal considering their reputation, the technology, and the competition. Then, and most importantly, unequal doesn't have to mean unmatched. I placed the order and  received the cables a few weeks ago. I now have 50+ hours on them and they have surpassed my expectations both in build/finish quality and performance. They also image dead-center as Bob promised. These are very musical cables that have tons of inner detail and don't break the bank! 

When it comes time to sell, I don't have the enormous investment in these that I couldn't find a buyer for a good price as is. I would have lost far more than $799 re-selling most of the cables I was considering.




128x128tgun5
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
There are many reasons why imaging could be thrown off including (and most likely) room acoustics. But also any one or combination of the following: out of phase/inverted polarity conditions, errors in cabling continuity, other system errors, and other suspects that might be perceived as a little too far out of left field or produce adverse reactions - including but not (rpt not) limited to - cable directionality and other hot button topics. Let’s keep things cordial. 😄

Careful experimentation may or may not (rpt not) find the reason or reasons why the soundstage is not perfectly centered, organized and transparent. One person’s perfect soundstage is another person’s bog standard soundstage. Everything is relative.

shadorne's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
shadorne
7,477 posts
 
@almarg

CT are varying the gauge of the wire presumably so the resistance of a longer cable matches that of a shorter cable. Low Resistance is probably the most important factor in a speaker cable (given signals at near light speed). It is kind of the same logic I would use for a long run of speaker cable - I would consider to use lower gauge (thicker wire) for runs in excess of 15 feet and especially for 4 ohm speakers (note many 8 ohm specified speakers are actually 4 ohm).

That said we are probably talking much less than 0.5% volume difference between 15 and 6 foot - less than 0.03 dB! Not much and I doubt people are able to position their ears/head to this degree of volume level accuracy anyway (always closer to one speaker or the other)
gnnrlies15
2 posts
 
Yes, and I believe coiled wire becomes an inductor.
The Emperor has no clothes.
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,428 posts
 
Coiled wire - not coiled cable.  Individual straight wire already has inductance.  Coiling just increases amount of it.  Coiling speaker cable increases inductance for common mode but not for differential signals. For differential signals inductance is close to zero.  Pretty much the same as coiling power cable - won't affect power delivery but will reduce injected common mode noise (it is also known as common mode choke).
tgun5's avatar
tgun5 OP
138 posts
 

Now that things have settled down a little I thought I'd jump back in to clarify my original post. I've always thought that one of the joys of this hobby was to share our findings about products, music, and tweeks with fellow audiophiles. Although I said a few posts back that "I knew this would create a stir" - that was not my intention. 

As a rule I'm a common sense guy but, I'm also an audiophile. Sometimes the two worlds don't align. I've heard many tweeks that make no sense improve my system substantially. Yes, in some of cases I don't understand the science but I hope it wouldn't stop me from sharing the experience.

I said in the original post that I leaned towards the argument for equal length cables. This is a just my common sense approach as I don't totally understand the exact reasoning  for either argument. That's really not the point of my post.  It was to create an awareness of Cerious Technologies willingness to approach things in a different manner.

Bob Grost knows far more about this subject than I. He feels the need to adjust the long wire to match the shorter reference. He has his reasons and does so with no up-charge! His cables are some of the best sounding wires I have owned to date and they are 1/4 to 1/5th the cost of all that I've owned. Based on many reviews here and what I hear, he could charge much, much more.

I've been in this hobby since 1970 and I find it refreshing that while so many products have gone to stratospheric pricing there is someone like Bob. Whether you agree with his opinion on cable length or not, he's on the forefront of Graphene technology in audio cables and he's doing it for a song. No, rotarius, he ain't "my guy" nor "full of it". I respect Bob for his advancements to the hobby and desire to do the best for his customers.

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