8mm Forum: surround sound - question for the AV enriched

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Posted by Wayne Tuell (Member # 1689) on June 09, 2012, 05:14 PM:

For the ones who have installed a surround sound system and like to do it perfect. Do you find it necessary to have equal length speaker wires for left & right speakers (front or rear)? Or do you cut to fit?

Posted by Bill Brandenstein (Member # 892) on June 09, 2012, 10:58 PM:

Depends on your receiver/processor/AV amp. If my iffy memory serves me right, you cut speaker cable the same length to keep electrical losses and characteristics matched. If your receiver uses a calibration mic, or you use a meter to match levels, then speaker cable length won't matter so much as the losses on the longer runs will be adjusted out.

Posted by Wayne Tuell (Member # 1689) on June 09, 2012, 11:07 PM:

Thanks for confirming my thoughts on the matter Bill [Big Grin]

Thanks Rob for the follow-up.

[ June 10, 2012, 10:27 AM: Message edited by: Wayne Tuell ]

Posted by Rob Young. (Member # 131) on June 10, 2012, 05:59 AM:

Wayne, just to back up Bill's reply, in this month's UK publication "Home Cinema Choice", that very question was asked.

Regular contributer and audio guru Richard Stevenson replied (hope he doesn't mind me quoting him);

"Theoretically, an electrical signal does not so much travel down a cable as shunt down it like a Newton's Cradle. This suggests that it would not matter if the cable was five feet or feet metres long, because the signal will arrive at the speaker at pretty much the same time anyway.
However, the longer the cable the greater it's resistance, inductance and capacitance. Your amplifier will see quite a different impedance load with a longer cable than a shorter one. As most amplifiers are sensitive to this load, by keeping the speaker cable the same length you will ensure exactly the same performance on each channel.
Of course, this is quite tricky in a real-world seven-channel system, so at the very least try to keep the front three main speakers the same length.
You may find you can't perceive any benefit at all, but it's better to be safe than sorry."

I've used this philosophy for the last 20 odd years in every system I've put together, ever since I used to sell top quality hi-fi gear and it works for me.

Have fun putting your system together [Smile]

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on June 13, 2012, 09:38 PM:

Nobody's home cinema is big enough to matter. Seriously.

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