Uneven speaker cable lengths and cable termination

I built a complete 5 channel rig using the Supra 3.4Ply cables advertised here on the Gon. This is their shielded model, they have others. This is a very impressive company that does all its own R&D and manufacturing in Sweden - highly regarded in the European buff books.

The cables are 1/2" diameter, very flexible, come jacketed and can be installed as is, though I put them in Techflex and used heat shrink to finish them off.

Uneven lengths all around. Contact Lars, lars@sjofnhifi.com, for the bulk rate which is very reasonable.

For convenience I terminated them with Audioquest CF BFA bananas. This is a Z plug as popularized by Nordost, in silver or gold over copper. They use set screws and do not require soldering. Because the Supra cables are tin over copper, you don't need to worry about oxidation. Pay careful attention to the product code (they make a number of different pieces) and shop around.

Much less mass then the Monsters and no brass for the same money.

There are lots of other choices of course - if you can solder, Luminous Audio makes a nice gold over copper spade for even less money.

It's a fun project and doesn't take long especially if you go bare wire...

Thanks for the response. I think I will try the anti-cable as I will then be able to get pre-terminated cables inside my current limited budget.

If I do get an equal length pair, the cable for a left channel will need to be coiled up. Will coiling up about 3 meter of cable very loosely really form an inductor? Wouldn't you need a longer cable runs for that?

Also, are the anti-cable interconnects also well-regarded? I am in need of a pair of unbalanced interconnects as well, and will save on shipping if I go with anti-cable for those as well.

Cable has inductance (0.5uH/ft) even straight one. It is equivalent to 0.375 Ohm of inductive impedance at 20kHz and 6ft. Keep cables always even to preserve imaging. Avoid coiling.

Making cables uneven is a little bit like buying house next to power lines. Very hard to sell later.

As for unterminated wires (bare) - it is the best followed by spades and bananas. Take into consideration that many amps don't accept bananas. My cable is way to complex to use it bare - I crimped spades then soldered them with 4% silver solder (cable originally had bananas).

Why can't you use your old MIT cables?

My old MIT 2 Terminator 2 cables are for bi-wiring, new speakers only accepts single wiring.

The MIT cables have a box with some mysterious components in the middle. I think the filter it applies is different for each of the speaker connectors, because each is marked with bass or mid/treble. Besides, they are too short.

>>03-17-09: Kijanki
Keep cables always even to preserve imaging<<

Not necessary. At CES 2008 AJ Conti (Basis Audio) connected one speaker with a 6' length of cable and the other with 75' of cable.

Not a single listener, including other tradespersons and reviewers, could discern a difference. Imaging was unaffected, so pay no attention to that falsehood.

The most important factor in uneven lengths, is resale value.