Whats wrong with short cables?


Hello Fellow Audionuts!!!!

Just curious....

Why should speaker cables be 8 feet and over? I hear that sometimes shorter cables can cause blown tweets and such during extended guitar solo's and stuff like that.

I always kinda assumed the shorter the run the better.

Im researching into building my own Pre, SS Amps, Speakers, and cables. I was planning on running a stereo amp pair for each speaker and bi-amping them. The amplifiers will be on thier own stands between the pre/cdp/tuner and the speaker. That means i will have a speaker cable run of probably less than 4 feet.

Would it be better to tailor the legnth of the cable to the distance needed? or would it be better to use a cable over 8 feet in legnth and just have it coiled behind the speaker?
slappy
The shorter the better, within reason. You don't want cables stretched as taunt as guitar strings now. You also don't want to coil cable, as this will increase inductance. It's best to tailor the length to the application. Have enough slack as to not cause tension on the connectors, but remember, shorter is better.

Regards,
John
The conventional wisdom is to keep all cables as short as possible. The contrary theory is espoused by Ron Bauman in the context of his Omega Mikro cables. His experimentation has confirmed, to his ears, that his cables sound best at a length of at least 8 feet. There is some theory behind this, but the real test comes from critical listening. I've spoken with Lloyd Walker, who sells the Omega Mikro cables, and Lloyd says that his own listening tests with different lengths of this cable confirm what the designer says about this particular design. This may be true of other cables, but this is the only specific instance of which I'm aware.

Unless you have a specific recommendation from the manufacturer, keeping all cables as short as practical is a pretty good rule of thumb.
Good. Then they wont be long at all.

I thought i remember seeing a thread about cable legnth, but i couldnt find it.

the cable legnths i will need will be about 2-3 feet tops. The amps will be on stands next to the speaker. I really diddnt want to coil the slack, nor did i want to have it laying all over the damn room. hahahaha
Hello Slappy,

Perry from Mapleshade Records is another Guru that insists on nothing less than 8' for speaker cables. I am using 4 1/2 foot cables spade to spade, w/ my mono blocks. I had the same exact cables inhouse in a 12'length prior to selling them. The shorter ones didn't sound any less musical. Most manufacturers do not like to sell anything under 6' in length. I guess it's a matter of lost profit on their end? So confusing us into going longer, keeps their pockets lined? Sometimes in life Shorter is better! IMO