Speaker Cable Length ?

[pre65]

Hi-how important is it (or is it) that both sets of speaker cables are the same length ?
one pair of mine (nearest the amp) is coiled up on the floor behind the speaker and it looks unsightly.
is the fact its coiled bad ?

Philip

[Clive]

Coiled is bad. It's an air-cored inductor.

The cables should be the same length.

[petercom]

Now that's what I call 'between the frying pan and the fire'. Do you have speaker cables the same length and coil one? Or different lengths to avoid the coil?

The impedance of the speaker cable is part of the 'load' presented to the amplifier by the speakers and cable. So, ideally, the cables should be the same length.

But coiling one of them adds extra inductance - one or two coils won't be a problem but a large number of tightly coiled turns will. I usually lay out 'extra' cable in no more than two large, elongated loops.

Otherwise you can get away with a difference in cable length of around 30% before the difference starts to become really noticeable.