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Author Topic: Speaker cable- even lengths?  (Read 7685 times)

Steve M Smith

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Re: Speaker cable- even lengths?
« Reply #10 on: March 07, 2014, 09:29:10 AM »

Even if there was a difference which you could hear by listening to each side separately, you would never notice anything odd when both sides are playing together.


Steve.
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Jamin Lynch

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Re: Speaker cable- even lengths?
« Reply #11 on: March 07, 2014, 05:07:26 PM »

I would think ideally you would want an even pair of speaker cable going to a set of speakers..  My amp rack is set up in a way were its off to one side, so I could run a 6' cable to one side but need a 17' cable to the other..  Is it ok to do that or should I just have 2 - 17'ers??? 
Thanks

I've always had a set of 10ft set of 25ft and set 50ft cables. that will cover just about everything.

Then I went all powered speakers. ::)
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Stu McDoniel

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Re: Speaker cable- even lengths?
« Reply #12 on: March 07, 2014, 07:58:00 PM »

I would think ideally you would want an even pair of speaker cable going to a set of speakers..  My amp rack is set up in a way were its off to one side, so I could run a 6' cable to one side but need a 17' cable to the other..  Is it ok to do that or should I just have 2 - 17'ers??? 
Thanks
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John Rutirasiri

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Re: Speaker cable- even lengths?
« Reply #13 on: March 21, 2014, 11:44:04 PM »

I would think ideally you would want an even pair of speaker cable going to a set of speakers..  My amp rack is set up in a way were its off to one side, so I could run a 6' cable to one side but need a 17' cable to the other..  Is it ok to do that or should I just have 2 - 17'ers??? 
Thanks

Sonically you wouldn't be able to hear the difference, but logistically isn't it just easier to have a set of the same longer cables so you won't have to worry about which goes where?

I would just go with 20' or 25' if you need 17' and have some wiggle room.  And have a spare with you.

If you have room in your truck, you can also do two amp racks right by each stack and have redundancy (and short cables.)

-JR
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claude cascioli

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Re: Speaker cable- even lengths?
« Reply #14 on: March 25, 2014, 10:47:30 AM »

I would think ideally you would want an even pair of speaker cable going to a set of speakers..  My amp rack is set up in a way were its off to one side, so I could run a 6' cable to one side but need a 17' cable to the other..  Is it ok to do that or should I just have 2 - 17'ers??? 
Thanks
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Luke Geis

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Re: Speaker cable- even lengths?
« Reply #15 on: March 28, 2014, 04:26:54 PM »

In most cases a cable length of around 50' with 16 gauge wire will net just under a 1db loss in level. This is negligible and you probably won't even notice. Now if your running the same setup with a 100' cable of the same gauge, then you will have about a 1.5db loss in level. This may be enough for you to notice? To me anything higher than a 1db loss is not good and wasting power. Not a super big deal to loose 1db, but if you have a 200' run you almost loose 3db which is significant! The basic rule I follow is to use as large a gauge wire  ( 12 gauge is fine for mains and real short runs on subs and 10 gauge is better for subs if you can't keep a real short run ) and as short a cable as practical.

The common low end wire gauge is 16 and a good mid level cable will have 12 gauge. I prefer the 12 gauge as a standard and shoot for 10 gauge on subs or very short ( less than 10' ) runs to them. I will commonly place the amps for the subs directly behind them using as short as a 3' cable. I am perhaps a little coco about keeping power available to the subs? To me the subs are usually neglected and underpowered ( to save money ) and I like to get as many available watts as I can to them if the need arises. I seem to end up working for a few companies that just don't design systems with performance in mind. They just seem to want to put a system out there that will run and sound ok doing it. My rig is deployed to run like a well tuned Porsche and I never worry about available power, headroom and system limitations. I spec my rig well and know what it will and won't do and know that when I book a gig for it, it will outperform the clients expectations. I also never worry about component abuse, as I know that in most cases I am running my system at a cruise speed for it. 
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Re: Speaker cable- even lengths?
« Reply #15 on: March 28, 2014, 04:26:54 PM »


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