Does length matter?

[Charismatic 0]

Good afternoon forumers,

 

need to get some feedback on the followings:

 

1)In Cans setup, Same cdp -> h amp -> hp but

 

a) - long IC(>=2m) + short hp wire(1m)

 

- short IC(<=1m) + long hp wire(3m)

 

What is the diff?

 

 

2)In Spker setup, same cdp ->amp ->spkr but

 

a) - long IC(>=2m) + short spk wire(<1.8m)

 

- short IC(<=1m) + long spk wire(>= 3m)

 

which is better? And in what way?

 

Thanks !

[Mackie 0]

Oh man...this is gonna be a technical and long answer. May I come back to U after lunch?

[Charismatic 0]

no prob, Mr. Moderator

[Mackie 0]

No need to be so cordial lah.....

[Sipher 0]

i want to know also.

long or short IC better?

[N@Z 0]

Short answer:

 

If you subscribe to the 'flat earth (UK) theory' short I/C, long speaker(h/phone) cables.

The Americans prefer the (moderately) long I/C & (relatively) short speaker cables.

 

Both have their merits & Mackie will elaborate on that as I'm not very techincal.

 

It's all down to practicall issues at the end of the day. Where do you place the equipment? How far apart is the Source from the amp, do you need to be able to reach the amp from your speakers/headphones? And ultimately, how much are you willing to spend? I/Cs are generally more expensive than speaker cables hence why you see most people having shorter lengths of I/C. There's other issues but this is the most obvious.

[Rameish 0]

Short IC and long headphone wire. Why because since you have an amp it should be able to power the headphones (even with 3 meters length). I would suggest you keep all lengths as shout as possible though.

[Mackie 0]

**Amended owing to a rusty engineering mind, having left the industry more than 10 years ago...thanks to those who highlighted my mistakes.**

 

There are 2 school of thoughts on this matter which Naz has already touched on. There's no absolute superiority of one over another but this is what I can share with U.

 

All cables has resistance (real)/impedance (mathematical) and the latter is made up of 2 elements ie, inductance and capacitance. Inductance is a low-pass filter whereas capacitance is a high-pass filter. On a well-balanced sounding interconnect, long runs may not be ideal as it incurs time delay and deteriorates the signal because of reactance. Bass/treble loss are apparent on very long runs but this reality may work for some system which has too much of the extremes. This is why some users love to use interconnects as a form of tone control. Next come RFI/EMF, having longer run means your interconnect is more exposed to such interference albeit shielded.

 

The same theories apply to speaker cables but on a lesser extent as the signals have already gone through amplification and any detriment introduced is less pronounced. Where do I stand in your scenario? I would choose the 1m cable, provided speakers are far apart enough to present a wide soundstage (not possible unless bi-amping). The reason being a shorter run will carry less impedance and also delay time for the signal to pass from amp to speakers. Long runs of speaker cables like those used in Home Theatre systems cause delay and that's why AV amps provide options for adjusting time delays to compensate for the long runs and also positioning of the center and rear-centre speakers to coincide with the front main channels.. This allow the signals to reach the listener ideally at the same time....minus the various time delays for surround channels.

 

In the end, I would not shift from these ideals unless environment calls for it ie, location of speakers and rest of the rig. I think everyone should be happy with 1-1.5m interconnects and 2.5m speaker cables....unless cost is an issue.

Edited June 15, 2003 by Mackie

[fishball79 0]

Mackie,

 

What about shielding? If you have shielded interconnect and non shielded speaker cables, the system would be less subject to RF if it has long IC and short SC?

 

WHen your OCOS come you have no choice but to grapply with 10' cables heehee

[Mackie 0]

Fishball,

 

Although RFI can be rejected by shielding, the detrimental effect of increased impedance on long cable runs still exists and poses a threat to the signal/sound. As it is, really YMMV. To be frank, I wouldn't be too discerning on the matter of long/short interconnects and speaker cables unless they are to the extremes because of space concern. In any case, one might not even detect an audible difference between the 2 schools of application.

[fishball79 0]

Mackie,

 

I previously used no longer than 30 cm interconnects, the short length was sometimes a pain when i rearrange equipment or loan new ones.

 

In the end cables are meant to ease life.. to me anway so i know think cables of any kind should be as long as needed... and under 1.5m

[N@Z 0]

I've never needed more than 1m length I/Cs & 1.5m is still ok which is generally accepted in both flat & round earth theorists. Shorter than 1m might be a bit of a pain.

[Mackie 0]

Agree.....I'm happy with my present 1m IC and 2.5m speaker cables.

Edited June 11, 2003 by Mackie

[bummer 0]

Ho ho ... what a long and technical explanation u gave, Mackie! Are u an engineer? or someone who just loves his audio equipment so much that he took great pains to go to such detail?

[Mackie 0]

Bummer, both.........I used to work for Kenwood specializing in AV amps and cd players more than a decade ago. In financial sector since then.