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Sound Reinforcement - Forums for Live Sound Professionals - Your Displayed Name Must Be Your Real Full Name To Post In The Live Sound Forums => LAB Lounge => Topic started by: Aaron Weidner on June 29, 2013, 01:39:16 PM
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I did a search on the forum trying to do some research about speaker cable lengths and i could only find one article that somewhat hit on the issue. Maybe i was searching for the wrong thing? My current setup includes two crown XTI 1002 and one crown XTI 2002 all bridged, 1 & 2 1002 are for my right and left and the 2002 is bridged down to 4 ohm for my two sub cabs. currently i have 4x 50 ft lengths as well as two XLR cables from the mixer on the left to my gear on the right. the speaker cables are one for each speaker, one to go from the amp to the sub, and one to go from one sub to the other one( no i dont coil my cables but it leaves one heck of a 150 ft mess by that bear! lol ). One of the venues that i use my system at has an odd setup. I will try and post a picture. Would it be alright to get 3 shorter cables for the subs and the right speaker? If i kept the speakers equal can i get shorter cables for the subs, or should i just get a smaller jumper cable for the subs? any suggestions?
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This has been discussed before... In general length of a speaker run does not matter, but resistance does. Consider fatter wire for longer leg.
JR
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This has been discussed before... In general length of a speaker run does not matter, but resistance does. Consider fatter wire for longer leg.
JR
Ok, good to go. I should have mentioned i use 12GA in my current setup.
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In such a small set up I can't imagine the length of your cables is going to make any discernible difference.
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14ga up to 40ft/12ga up to 60ft is the rule I've allways used.Never needed more than that
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I did a search on the forum trying to do some research about speaker cable lengths and i could only find one article that somewhat hit on the issue. Maybe i was searching for the wrong thing? My current setup includes two crown XTI 1002 and one crown XTI 2002 all bridged, 1 & 2 1002 are for my right and left and the 2002 is bridged down to 4 ohm for my two sub cabs. currently i have 4x 50 ft lengths as well as two XLR cables from the mixer on the left to my gear on the right. the speaker cables are one for each speaker, one to go from the amp to the sub, and one to go from one sub to the other one( no i dont coil my cables but it leaves one heck of a 150 ft mess by that bear! lol ). One of the venues that i use my system at has an odd setup. I will try and post a picture. Would it be alright to get 3 shorter cables for the subs and the right speaker? If i kept the speakers equal can i get shorter cables for the subs, or should i just get a smaller jumper cable for the subs? any suggestions?
The shorter the better. Yes there are rules for cable length vs size vs impedance. But I have greatly violated them many times and nobody knew any difference
I would challenge most of the people who really push the cable length issue to do a blind test and pick out the different cables
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Buy/borrow/rent a long, say 100', 14awg cable and a short, say 5', 10awg cable. AB them on a main speaker, and a sub. Then decide where between the two data points you want to end up for your rig for each speaker type.
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I would challenge most of the people who really push the cable length issue to do a blind test and pick out the different cables
Now there you go again, bringing reality into the conversation ;)
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Now there you go again, bringing reality into the conversation ;)
The thing to remember in audio is to worry about the things that make the biggest differences
Cables are not one of those
Often people get hung up on things like cables that hookup their poor quality speakers and expect a better cable to somehow get better performance out of them
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The thing to remember in audio is to worry about the things that make the biggest differences
Cables are not one of those
Often people get hung up on things like cables that hookup their poor quality speakers and expect a better cable to somehow get better performance out of them
Cables are like most things, they don't make a difference unless they do.
More prevalent in the hifi side than pro, there are snake oil merchants who sell wire for silly amount of money and argue silly claims for differences that mostly don't exist. Wire can make a difference if severely undersized, but generally not a problem with reasonable selections. The hyperbolic advertising raises consumer expectations for wire differences.
JR
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The thing to remember in audio is to worry about the things that make the biggest differences
Cables are not one of those
Often people get hung up on things like cables that hookup their poor quality speakers and expect a better cable to somehow get better performance out of them
i have indeed seen this lol. I guess ( now after reading the responses ) what i was trying to ask was; will getting ( and or making ) a 10 ft cable and a 5 ft patch cable for the subs and even maybe a 10 ft cable for the right speaker but leaving the 50 footer on the right speaker make a noticeable sonic impact?
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No sonic impact
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i have indeed seen this lol. I guess ( now after reading the responses ) what i was trying to ask was; will getting ( and or making ) a 10 ft cable and a 5 ft patch cable for the subs and even maybe a 10 ft cable for the right speaker but leaving the 50 footer on the right speaker make a noticeable sonic impact?
Like others have said, no sonic impact, but it might clean things up a bit on the visual/setup side.
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another reason i keep my speaker cables as short as possible is cost. in my triamped system the low mid and high cables are different lenghts. i bet you know why. also beware of the aluminum/copper cables. yes one conductor is copper and the other conductor is aluminum. they have different electrical characteristics and aluminum is not as resiliant as copper and cannot be soldered.
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Cool! Thank you very much guys! :D