Speaker wire - equal length or shortest?

I have heard a demonstration of the OCOS which seemed to support the claim. But you need to like the sound of the OCOS. If you like it you will call it fast. If you don't like it you will call it lean and perhaps a tad metallic. I have no doubt that it would sound great to most ears in the right system, but also awfully thin and bright to most ears in the wrong system. Just beware it is not a middle of the road type cable - definitely tipped in one particular direction.

Paulwp - good on ya sport! For being a dissenting voice - I can respect that. I have also heard systems (with Kimber 8TC as it happens) that had unequal long lengths and I did not find it at all irksome. So Albert got it right - same lengths does matter, so that is what you should do if you want optimum performance, but mileage will vary depending.

So you need to balance risk and return. There is a risk you will be unhappy with the unequal lengths, and how much would you have saved, the distance between your speakers cannot be that great can it?

I got really close to a RHUBARB for a moment, but do not want to devalue it right now.

Use equal lengths absolutely. Also realize that for a run that long you are better off with a networked design cable such as MIT or Transparent. Group delay is a significant degradation factor in any cable, but especialy in longer runs of interconnect or speaker cable. Only networked designs are compensated to achieve corrections for the time distortions encountered.

Thanks for all your comments, this is really a great resource! I swear I don't know anyone within a day's drive that can give me an intelligent answer to any audio question so it is nice to have this. I will try to answer a few of your questions regarding my question. Cost is not an issue to the extent that I already have the speaker wire all run in two 35 lengths. I real question is to I hack off 15 feet or not off the long run. It sounds like "no" is the general answer. The wire (to complicate things) is actually 2 wires (I am bi-amping) the 12 gauge goes to the highs and 10 gauge goes to the woofers. So I think I am OK with regards to thickness. At least I am not trying to run everything through 22 gauge zip-cord. The quality is OK with the 10 gauge retailing for $3.50 a foot (Phoneix Gold Reference II High Definition InnerSpace 210 wire, it is twisted with a clear outer jacket) My wife is the accountant at an audio store so we get it at cost, $.84 a foot. How's that for mark-up? I am not going to invest any more than that at this point, I just about dropped dead when I saw what some speaker wire goes for. It seems like audiophiles are in an endless search for definition and when they find it it is too bright. I have actually heard that some people recommend DOWNGRADING your wire for a smoother sound. Going as far as saying that you can get the same warm sound of a tube amp by just running a wire that is a bit too small to your speakers. I guess it can tone down the harshness of a solid-state amp/pre-amp or something.

Back to the subject at hand, I would worry more about running 35 foot lengths of inter-connect than speaker wire. Just not enough force behind the signal at low volumes for all the info to get the amp intact IMHO.

As far as group delay goes do you mean that certain freq. will be delayed down the wire and result in time distortions? I assume you must otherwise equal lengths would solve the problem if all the freq. left the amp and arrived at the speaker at the same time. At what length might this be a problem? And is this more or less of a problem for speaker wire vs interconnects?

Anyway I figure my biggest problem with having my gear on one wall and the speakers on another is having to choose between looking at my speakers and looking at my gear. Plus to make adjustments I need to turn my head and that screws up the sound field making it hard to concentrate. Someday I will have them on the same wall, maybe then I will drop some serious change on wire once it is only 8 feet long.

Thanks!

Joel

Actually, the lower signals in an IC interact less with the wire than the higher signals. So definately use a longer IC if you can put your amp near(between) your speakers and then use the shortest speaker cables possible. Group delay, where lower frequencies can move more slowly through the cable, is more of a problem for speaker wire due to the larger interaction.

There is a gentleman named Frank Gow at Audio Classics in Vestal, NY. He is an audio wiz, who said to me that cables DO NOT have to be of equal lenghts!