Very short speaker cable length recommended?


Hi folks, I've read some article that a too short speaker cable could make the sound worse, is this true? The statement was btw from MIT. I've always thought a short speaker cable (less than three feet) could bring improvement to the sound, at least it wouldn't do any harm. What is your opinion regarding this issue?

Chris
dazzdax
I have tried almost all lenghts in my system, I am using Very short speaker cables between my tube amps and Cabasse speakers. I am also running passive attenuator instead of an active preamp. It just did not sound right with long cables, I blamed the passive attenuator, I blamed amp gain, speaker sensitivity, but everything was in order...I changed the speaker cables for very short ones just for a test, and everything fell into place: beautifull sound...The bass got nicer tighter and lower, midrange was better and the tweeters are sweeter.

Yes I do reccommend very short speaker cables, I have tried them in my system and are definitely better to my ears.

I can also get a manufacturer that says Guns are good for you....

I cannot imagine somebody selling a 10" cable for $3k... but I can imagine someone buying it!!!

Try it and see, thats the fun of all this!
Again which I stated above, the most important thing is to try it, and certain equipment will react certain ways to the load, impeadance, capacitance, inductance etc.. of a length of cable as the same cable different length will change these properties. I have relativley short speaker cables right now myself at 4.5 ft and they sound perfect, and actually better than my 6.5 ft do of the same brand just in the way they sounded better because they took very little burn in. However with my horn speakers the shorter sounded "tinny" or lean.. They were probably just too fast or too low of resistance to run on that specific horn system with that amp.

By the way above someone stated a test that someone should do to see how different a shorter vs. longer length take to burn in and sound good, Well I can tell you my 4.5 ft sounded good instantly vs. the 6.5 foot, but after each burned in for a couple months they pretty much equaled out,

I only use the 4.5 now due to its cleaner install and I have mono blocks only 2 ft from the speakers. But yes I say the longer the cable the longer it takes to settle down. Interconnects seem to be quite a different deal than speaker cables however, mostly anything from 1 meter to 3 meter I have found very hard pressed to say one is ultimatley any better, however interconnects definatley have bigger influence on the sound if you change them then do the speaker cables in my trials. I still say go a short as possible with power lines however, that is just a no brainer.
I am no expert just stating facts in my scenario's.
Ok Audiofeil, we can leave it at that. I don't need to contact your sources as I can put you in contact with other prominent designers that say the opposite. As I said, I do believe you when you say that some manufacturers recommend short cables.

BTW, not that it really matters but you did dismiss me as an amateur in your post above on 7-14.

I think this is one of those things that doesn't have a definitive answer. I once went to great pains to build some diffusers. They worked but no matter where I put them they made my system sound worse. I took them to a friends house and they made his system sound better. I don't think there is a correct answer to the cable length question either. I had horrible results and others have great results.