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Uneven speaker cable lengths and cable termination

Hi,

I'm getting new speakers that are single-wire only. This means I can't use my old MIT Terminator 2 cables, and need something new. My budget is limited as I've just spent all of it on the speakers :)

I'm not sure what the stance on cables is here on audiogon, so I hope I'm not starting a war :)
Anyway, I have some questions:

- Are equal lengths for both channels required? Is it possible to hear a difference? (my amp will be positioned to the left of the left side speaker, so I will need about a 4m run to the rightmost speaker. I was thinking of getting 4m and 2m runs)

- If I buy bare cable, is unsoldered termination helpful? The monster quicklock spades and bananas look really nice, but I wonder if they are worth the cost. (http://www.monstercable.com/productdisplay.asp?pin=4584)

My speakers are Audio Physic Scorpio II with Krell KAV-400xi btw. General recommendations are welcome.
ahochan
ahochan OP
10 posts
 
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.
audiofeil
4,011 posts
 
>>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.
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,426 posts
 
Audiofeil - I don't know what conditions they had at the show to get perfect imaging and how better it could be with even cables. 70ft of the difference is 4.4 Ohm of inductive impedance at 20kHz.

"Not a single listener, including other tradespersons and reviewers, could discern a difference."

How do you know that? Did they run questioner of every single person. Maybe people did not say anything to be polite to host or assumed that imaging was good enough for location/conditions.
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,467 posts
 
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.

Interesting. I do not find that surprising at all - given signals travel close to the speed of light. Provided the speakers and amp were a good match (speaker high impedance and amp low output impedance then even the very slight change in frequency response would likely be inaudible)
sounds_real_audio
985 posts
 

This is certainly worth our time to consider. Perhaps a blind test. Two speaker cables of equal or greater value compared to two of unequal length. Hmm. Is it happy hour. 75 feet is a little long. I don't think I have an out door extension cord that long and I have an electric lawn mower. Sometimes when the extension gets a kink in it the lawn mower stops mowing. I call the repair man.
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