Cable lengths


I am a novice, yet must ask the question to budget my future upgrades if possible. I need 15ft speaker cable lengths to one electrostatic speaker and the other only a few feet. Can
I use differant length cables without damaging the sound quality.
electrostaticman
Inductance, iirc, is related (for a "normal" wire) to the diameter of the conductor. The capacitance of the cable is related to the distance between conductors.

By normal wire, I mean one that is not a spiral like the old Krell/Symo stuff for example...

Some mfrs do things to add capacitance (shunt capacitance) via the relationship between the wires so as to offset the self inductance of the cable. Dunlavy's patents might make for good reading on this sort of idea.

Personally, I'm against this sort of idea since it rarely seems to yield a cable that sounds good to my ears. What seems to happen is that the capacitance wrecks havoc with the output waveform of feedback amps. For non-feedback amps (the few out there) the effect is different. So, IMHO, these sorts of cables never sound alike on two different amps or speakers. Unpredictable.

I try to minimize the inherent inductance and capacitance effects and feel that results in the most predictable and stable cables.

And again, the internal geometry of any cable will play the major role in its sound, the wire, materials, and the like being more secondary or even less important. That's not to say that you can not hear any of these effects when comparing identically built cables with one item changed, you often can.

So, the idea is that if you use two different lengths, usually the basic L & C values will be different enough to cause some differential in what you may hear. So, go for two
identical lengths, and DON'T COIL the excess cable!

(it makes an inductor) :- )

_-_-bear
By coiling the excess cable are you conserned about magnetic field generations affecting the sound quality? In addition my problem will be the system is in our living room and my wife will kill me if any more cable is exposed. I already have my receiver antenna sticking out of her plastic tree.
NO, not magnetic field generation! By coiling the cable you are making, well, a coil! This increases the series inductance of the cable, rolling off the highs.

What you do with your wife and your antenna, is another matter for a different group, I think! ; -)

_-_-bear
I use two different lengths in my room and actually they are two entirely different cables and there is little to no difference at high volumes. At very low volumes one speaker is a little louder than the other.