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Is it better to have long speaker cables and short interconnects, or short speaker cable and long interconnects?
I want to keep my preamp and CD player near me (no remotes). The speakers are 10 feet away. I can keep the amp near the preamp or near the speakers.
I called a company to ask about different speaker cables. The guy I spoke with said I should not be buying long speaker cables, but should put the amp near the speakers to minimize speaker cable length, and get long interconnects between my preamp and amp.
Which is going to produce the best sound?
Thanks,
Jim
Follow Ups:
Don't waste too much energy on damping factor. It is a highly overrated part of the equation. Anything over 10 is fine. Most amps can do this. The ability of a speaker's woofer to control itself lies in the design of the speaker, not damping factor. Some manufactures love to seduce you with a high damping factor, of course after explaining how important it is. You can end up with excessive feedback to lower distortion which gives rise to low internal impedance which results in high damping. Pick your poison.
NOW THAT MAKES SENCE,,EVERYBODY TAKE NOTE AND STICK IT TO THE WALL.
Decreased damping factor due to excessive speaker cable length is a primary aspect to consider:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damping_factor
"...damping factor between a particular loudspeaker and a particular amplifier describes the ability of the amplifier to control undesirable movement of the speaker cone near the resonant frequency of the speaker system."
See this Bryston newsletter for further insight:
The great consesnsus is long interconnects and short speaker cables.
Over the years this has been asked and answered thousands of times..
Natually there are always a few contrarians who claim it has to be the opposite, but the majority agree the short speaker cable is the way to go.
I have a seven meter preamp to amp interconnect, with a one meter speaker cable.
(my best other option wouold be 4 or five meter interconnect with 3 or 4 meter speaker wires..
No way in Hell would i ever do a one or two meter interconnect with a seven/eight meter speaker cable!
There are many factors involved in this general question. I am convinced shorter wires are better, period. The wire is seen as a load to the driving component so the issue becomes how much inductance, capacitance, and resistance is acceptable for your components to drive without affecting the signal. If the speaker cables are too long, and the wire gauge is inadequate, you could encounter high frequency roll-off. Likewise, your preamp may not be capable of driving very long interconnects, especially if it is a passive unit. Certain cables are not suitable for long runs, like speaker cables designed for ultra-low inductance at the expense of high capacitance. Noise is another issue as one poster indicated. Balanced ICs will be more resistant of noise issues if your gear is fully balanced.
For typical amps and cables with typical L/C/R values, your 10-foot long SCs should be fine. Cables in the range of about 12 feet or less (both IC and/or SC) are typically within an acceptable range sonically, for most active equipment and typical cables. There are always exceptions as well as folks who can perceive small sonic differences so YMMV.
interesting question,
I have gone in the opposite direction - short ICs and Long speaker based upon the following logic:
Given that the conductor is not perfect (loss-less), I would rather loos a small percentage of a large voltage (relatively - ~28 V max = 100 watts into 8 Ohms versus "line level"=~2 V max) than loose the same/similar percentage of a small voltage...
YRMV
Happy Listening
I'm using 3 foot interconnects and 30 foot speaker cables with no problems. I was told I would experience roll off of the high frequencies when I posed the question on this board, but I've not noticed any such thing.
I'm not sure if the lengths you mention will influence sound that much, but I would keep the IC's short because they are more susceptible to noise. Good idea to keep capacitance down in IC's and you're assured that, if they are short. Speaker cables, unless very poorly designed, normally won't pick up noise, so I would make them longer than the IC's.
for the very same reason. Shorter speaker cables are more popular because it is cheaper.
Stu
Thanks so much everyone. Logic is logic, I'm convinced, short interconnects it is. Makes my life easier too.
Jim
I agree, and have my system set up that way....long interconnects, short speaker cables
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