Speaker Cables, One side longer- bad idea?

Cable lengths should be equal to preserve staging & imaging charactaristics. I guess that's what he'saying...

Hmm. Perhaps guessing again might be in order.

Nicely done Bwhite. How about multi-miked recordings with mics out of phase with each other?

Now someone want to explain the extent to which damping factors will differ one side from the other and the affect on the sound we will hear?

There are two issues that come to mind. First of all the electrical properties of speaker cable ARE to some extent length dependant and varying those parameters can effect how the amp interacts with the speakers. This is less of an issue in a 5.1 set up between the front pair and back pair since close matching is only needed with each stereo pair (the sound is really mixed as two stereo mixes plus center channel). Front to back balance will be more related to your position relative to the speaker. I agree that the phase issue is less pressing although the ear can resolve very tiny phase differences for sound localization (the comparison of the source at each ear allows an order of magnitude more resolution than either ear could accomplish alone), however since you will not be seated in the EXACT center and you may have an assymettrical room this is unlikely to make a great difference. However, different lengths within a stereo pair is IMHO a bad idea because of the resistance/capacitance issue.

Oh, I went back and read the beginning of your first post Bwhite. Attribution?

Attribution: I am not certain who wrote the document although it is as I stated, "interesting reading". Audiogon's new forum format doesn't allow for placing a URL or a link inside of a post so...I was unable to do that as a means to send readers to the actual online document.

I am at work now and the bookmark is saved on my home computer. I will post the URL this evening when I get home so that others can read the original document and indulge in some of the other rants on the webpage.