Does unequal speaker wire length matter?


My amp is not located centrally between my speakers. Due to the layout of my listening area, the amp is about 10 feet from one speaker, and adjacent to the other - and this will not change. I am currently using two 4-meter cables, but one of them need only be about 1 meter. I am looking to upgrade my cables, could I get away with unequal lengths and save a good bit of money?
ddcrews
Timing will be off? Unless the disparity is great, you will never hear a difference. Keep them the same length and avoid pangs of audiophile neurosis. It's all in your head anyway.
Sd hit it right on the head. Kudo's to him for taking into account the variables involved i.e. the actual electrical characteristics of the cables being used and how they will affect the system ( tonal characteristics and power transfer ) as a whole.

Other than that, i would try to stick with the same length if economically possible. If you ever want to change these cables for some reason, it might be difficult to sell such an odd configuration. After all, you are talking about 3+ feet on one side and 13+ feet on the other side. If you are worried about this, there are "decent" speaker cables that offer a low nominal impedance and can be bought for pennies on the dollar ( compared to "audiphile approved" brands ). This will give you solid performance with minimal potential for loss of investment should something change in the future. Sean
>
FWIW...One ohm of wire resistance is worth almost exactly 2dB when driving a 4 ohm speaker.

AWG #10 wire is 0.001018 ohms per foot. Ten extra feet of wire is worth 0.01018 ohms, and the resulting attenuation is 0.02 dB.
El: I think that most people are using speaker cables of 12 to 16 gauge on average with quite a few at the 13-14 gauge area. Couple the higher series resistance with a slightly inductive load and a higher nominal impedance ( 40 - 100 ohms ) and you'll have more realistic results. All of this is a moot point if using a cable that was properly designed for the application. Sean
>
When recordings are made, some of the many microphones that are usually used have much longer cables than others. Does this matter?