2. cables
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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
kalan
185 posts
 
Redkiwi: What is a "link" in this context?
artizen65's avatar
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artizen65
273 posts
 
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/audio/skineffect/page1.html

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/intro/electron.htm

A couple of good sites on cable theory.
oxia
51 posts
 
Sean,

Are zobels necessary for Goertz even if your amps are equipped with zobels? I thought that having zobels on both the amps and the speaker terminals could be detrimental to the sound.

Thanks
kalan
185 posts
 
The assumption that cable manufacturers promote longer speaker wire lengths to increase sales is an easy one to make.

If you use short speaker wire, you need long interconnects. Right? Has anyone researched the total cost difference between long IC with short speaker wire vs. short IC and long speaker wire across several makers' products?

I sampled pricing from Harmonic Technology and Audience just as a starting point. The pricing is only a bit higher with longer speaker wire.

A 3m pair of non-biwire Audience Au24 SW is $93 more than a 3m pair of Au24 IC (RCA). Not enough to support the profit motive theory.

In the case of HT, there is more material in their speaker wire than in their IC; so, manufacturing costs may be higher for SW (speaker wire) and thereby justify the marginally higher cost per meter.
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