Should I Reduce Speaker Cable Length?

Blockerbrothers,

Thanks for your encouragement. I have friends who recently bought upgraded Tara Labs cables. We introduced them into my system, with noticable improvement. The cables are about 6 feet long, and I am not sure if the biggest improvement came from the reduced length, or superior cables.

Thanks,

DuffyDawg

I have always heard that you should have a minimum of 8 feet per cable anyway. Bad part is I have no idea if that is true or not. I have a pair of ascent i's coming and due to room constraints I can only place them about 12 feet apart but I have 10 foot speaker cables which gives me the opportunity to go 20 apart (next house maybe). Sorry if this is no help.

I experimented a year or so ago with cutting down the length of an old set of XLO speaker wires I have. There was a noticeable improvement the depth of the stage each time I reduced the cables by 1/2 their length. Because my amps are right next to each speaker I could go as short as 18" and I've been using those ever since. I'm now auditioning new 1 1/2 to 2 meter speaker cables from Purist Audio, Synergistic Research, Wireworld and JPS. All of these cables blow my little shorties away but were talking the difference between $100 cables that are 10 years old and new cable technologies that go for $1500 to $2000. Based on my experience I would agree that the cable quality and synergy in your system makes the most difference. Then perhaps length might play a part. I'll probably stay with 1 1/2 meter length in case I should ever need to sell them. My preference is longer IC's and shorter speaker cables

Marknewbie325

Thanks for the taking the time to share your information. I have been reading that same recommendation also. I believe that the primary advocate is Mapleshades. Most dealers have recommended that I should go shorter on the speakers, and use a longer interconnect. I really want to here the personal experiences of someone who has done that, using the same wires, and could comment on the nature of the changes.

Thanks again,

DuffyDawg

Dan_ed

Thanks for sharing your experience with shortening of cables. This inforation is exactly what I am looking for. With the cost of top quality cables, I don't want to be so set on maintaining my current configuration if I can substantially change the sound quality. Unfortunately, I am running only one amp, and would prefer to keep it off to one side. That would result in a minimum of about a 10 foot cable, but half the length I am currently using.

Thanks,

DuffyDawg