Speaker Cable Length and Center Channels

[itschris]

I'm expecting my Def Techs, TV, and receiver to arrive the middle of next week or so. I decided to make my own speaker wires from the wall plates to the speaker using the 4 wire Canar that everyone seems to recommend. I bought a bunch of stuff from wirecare.com and thought it might be fun to give it a shot.

The wall plate for the speakers will be directly behind the console for the TV and the CLR 2500. How critical is it that the center channel spkr cable is the same length as the right and left? I need about 8ft each to the right and left which includes some slack, but that would be an awful lot of extra wire for the center which really only needs about a foot or two in reality.

In the past, I've been told it's absolutely critical to have the same length, but does a few feet for the center really matter?

 

[Brian_the_King]

...but does a few feet for the center really matter?

No, you will be fine.

http://www.audioholics.com/education/cables/speaker-cable-length-differences-do-they-matter/?searchterm=speaker wire length

See this sentence, however;
"...but avoiding a ratio greater than 4:1 of identical wire gauge is good measure for minimizing RLC losses which can affect system damping factor and attribute to frequency response variations."

So if your FR/FL speakers are going to have eight feet, don't use less than two feet on the center.

And enjoy all that new gear, quite exciting

 

[itschris]

Thanks Brian, that's what I was hoping.

I'm totally stoked about all the stuff coming. I've got all my wires ordered with the exception of the HDMI and Subwoofer Cables because I'm not yet sure just how long they'll have to be going up and over through the ceiling and back down the wall. I want to get the shortest cable possible for my HDMI. The wires guys are coming Monday, so I'll figure all that out. In the meantime, I have a big wheel of spkr wire coming and some fancy wire and shrinkwrap and braided casing and banana plugs. I'm gonna try my hand at making my own wires. I didn't want to at first, but now I'm kinda looking forward to it.

Thanks again for the good info.

 

[Midcow2]

Wire length is not as critical as speaker placement !

I'm expecting my Def Techs, TV, and receiver to arrive the middle of next week or so. I decided to make my own speaker wires from the wall plates to the speaker using the 4 wire Canar that everyone seems to recommend. I bought a bunch of stuff from wirecare.com and thought it might be fun to give it a shot.

The wall plate for the speakers will be directly behind the console for the TV and the CLR 2500. How critical is it that the center channel spkr cable is the same length as the right and left? I need about 8ft each to the right and left which includes some slack, but that would be an awful lot of extra wire for the center which really only needs about a foot or two in reality.

In the past, I've been told it's absolutely critical to have the same length, but does a few feet for the center really matter?

The wire length is not near as critical as speaker placements because electricity travels at the speed of light 186,200 miles per second. So 8ft. travel is only .000008137 milliseconds. The only consideration is that the wire gauge is large enough ( lower number is larger) so that the wire itself does not add an substantial additional impedance to the speaker impedance. The wire quality also not as important as the gauge. If you are truly concerned get 14 gauge or bigger (lower number).

Howver speaker placement is more critical becuase sound travels so slow in comaprison to eletricity. Sound only travels at aorund 1130ft/ second so 8 feet would give you a 7 millisecond delay which the human ear can begin to detect. That is why speaker distance and equalization is so important.


Good Luck

 

[scott911]

Is it the Canare 4S8 4-Conductor Speaker Cable, you're are look at?

Assuming that you're not bi wiring anything, have you heard that pairing up the conductors is benificial?

I'm about to buy some monoprice 12 gauge, and I'd not heard that seperation of the copper, so to speak, added any benifit...

Thanks for the input...

 

[bandphan]

all you need to know http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm

 

[itschris]

Is it the Canare 4S8 4-Conductor Speaker Cable, you're are look at?

Assuming that you're not bi wiring anything, have you heard that pairing up the conductors is benificial?

I'm about to buy some monoprice 12 gauge, and I'd not heard that seperation of the copper, so to speak, added any benifit...

Thanks for the input...

Yes that's the cable I bought (got it from BlueJeanCable.com) I don't know if pairing the conductors is beneficial or not. I'll be honest, my baseline requirment for just about anything is that it has to be pretty good... not necessarily the best, but real good within reason. Once I establish that, it's more about what looks good to me. I got that cable because I really like the way Calabrine Cables look and they shrink wrap the paired wires and have nice jacketing. I just think it looks good, that's all. I know the wire is fine, so my only concern after that is appearance since in my setup you'll see the speaker cables. After talking about it with some guys here, I just decided to try and make my own cables. If I find I'm totally worthless at shrink wrapping and can't make the cables look good, then I'll just go back and buy the Calibrines.

It's like most things with this stuff.. maybe on some spec sheet, one type of wire will be better than another... but it's not something you'll ever hear. I think only when you have the very highest end equipment do you ever really need to think about the weak links. I mean, if I had $50K in a pre/pro and amp, and another $30 or $50k in speakers... than yeah, I'd probably spend a couple of thousand dollars on cable just because... just in case... and another couple grand wouldn't matter at that point. Just like if you own a Ferrari, you don't go put Sears Tiger Paw tires on it and save a few bucks. You buy the $4K set of Pirelli's.

 

[adk highlander]

I will be doing a very similar build soon. I got the canare 4s11 from westlake and purchased techflex, shrink tubing and wire boots from wirecare. Everything should be here by Friday so if the weather stays crappy I will be putting them together this weekend. Thats if I made my measurements correctly for the shrink tubing. Like anything the first time you do something it will be a challenge but it gets easier each one you make.

Post pics after you make yours.

 

[itschris]

I will.. I bought enough were I can practice a bit. It seems easy enough, but little things like how far do you pull the shrinkwrap over the braided part or does the shrinkwrap shrink in length too or just diameter, have got me stumped. How long should the individual wires be when they split out for right and left and how many times should I twist them before locking them in to the plug. It'll be interesting. I'll post pics. I'm hoping to get my stuff early next week.

 

[Janik]

Speaker guage selector

This website is pretty neat. It automatically calculates the resistance and decibel loss in any speaker wire run:

http://www.bcae1.com/images/swfs/speakerwireselectorassistant.swf

It helped me to correctly choose 10 gauge wire for one run to my right side speaker (12 gauge was used for the others)
I realize many will squawk that all wire must be the same gauge, but I had a bit of a problem with wire layout aesthetics, and the only way to run the wire in a presentable fashion forced me into this decision. I simply felt it was just as important to balance the wire resistance.

 

[mtrycrafts]

In the past, I've been told it's absolutely critical to have the same length, but does a few feet for the center really matter?

Well, yes, that is one of the urban legends that is still peddled by the 'golden eared' crowd.

 

[davidtwotrees]

I made these for my bedroom system. I used the bigger 4S11 for my big rig.
It is easy peasy japanesy as far as projects go.......although I never did come up with a good way to cut the techflex........you're supposed to use a hot wire.......or a knife attachment for a solder tip.........I wouldn't buy the expensive hot wire set up, and the knife attachment was crap. So I just cut it with scissors and melted the ends with a lighter......the techflex really disentegrates when cut with scissors, but it goes under the heat shrink so it doesn't seem to matter. I thought the red and yellow looked hot.