speaker cable length question

Aren't you asking the question:

For a fixed distance Preamp to amplifiers to speakers what is the best sounding balance of distances (pre to amp) vs. (amp to speaker).

In my experience, you are better off with shorter i/c's and longer speaker cables (wonder if this will light off a firestorm?).

happy listening

I have a different feeling- I prefer longer interconnects and shorter speaker cable. I have tried speaker cables of different lengths in the past from 24' to 8' to 5' to 3' to 2'- and I can say without a doubt that the shorter cables sounded better.
Probably because they contributed less to the overall sound.

I have not noticed such a difference with lengths of balanced interconnects.

Will

Different strokes (or something). My speakers are within 3 feet of my monoblock amps, but 8-foot spaker cables sound better to me than 3-footers. This does follow Pierre Sprey's (Mapleshade) dictum that the minimum speaker cable length should be 8 feet, for what that's worth. Dave

Hi Kj.

I think most likely your best answer is going to come from the manufacturer of the cables you're considering. There is no pat. answer to this question. It depends on whose cabling you're using or going to use.

At one time my own personal experience with many cable makes lead me to believe there was a one trick pony answer. But after seeing a post by Sean in a certain thread earlier this year (which I can no longer find), and considering the uniqueness of our product line (which I had never really done...shame on me), I went back and visited this with our own products. To my surprise, I found my previously held beliefs did not hold up.

Out of this, I've concluded that the answer really should be answered to full benefit by each manfacturer as they should be familiar with how their cabling's topology, build materials, etc. play into their cable's performance as a system of I/Cs and S/Cs and which is better: Longer S/Cs with Shorter I/Cs or visa versa.

For example, Mapleshade, I believe, says the best S/C length is 8ft. I have no doubt that may be true for their offering but it isn't true for us and I bet for at least many other manufacturers.

Again, there is no broad brush stroke answer.

Hope this helps.

Cheers! and Kind Regards,

Robert
RSAD

signal degrades more in interconnects than in speaker cables.
if not enough juice on input your bottom end will dissapear.
for speaker cables it doesn't matter as long as proper gauge and length used for a proper rms or average current.
to define exactly what minimal gauge you need for a given distance you can contact any HD speciallist who has a table to give you the answer.