Speaker cables should be equal lengths. Is it a myth?

I’m an electrical enigineer, but just for some peace of mind I’d stick with two equal lenghts😉

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Is that what the actress said to the Bishop?! :smiley:

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I guess the emphasis should be on the word ‘slightly’ @DJM . I’ll wager that Naim’s inductance and capacitance calculation didn’t arrive precisely at 4.000 metres, but that 4 metres is a rounded up number from something a bit below 4m. So, since you’re original suggestion was to trim and re terminate your existing cables I’d not be concerned about that loss of length and a mild undershoot of specs. Likewise, a length disparity between left and right channel of 5-10% wouldn’t overly concern me even with older Naim amps, but 3m one side, 6m the other is asking for trouble IMV and I personally wouldn’t want to try it.

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@davidhendon has got to the crux of the matter here.

To put even more simply, because cable all have values for capacitance, inductance, and resistance per meter, having different length runs is like having one set of capacitors and inductors on one speaker, and totally different ones on the other in the signal path.

As such the longer run can sound smoother. Whether it does is another matter. If the difference is between 4m on one side and 5m on another, I really doubt anyone can tell the difference. But if you are talking about 3m on one side and 6m on the other, now you are doubling the inductance and capacitance and that is another matter altogether.

Hi @feeling_zen. 3 meters and 6 meters are just lengths that I pulled out of the air, just as an example. My Tellurium’s are both 4 meters. Well, they’ll end up being about 3.90, as I’m going to have them re terminated.
Having said that, I’ll have to see what they will charge, as the cables are 10 years old. Might not be worth it?

Do you not know anyone that can solder?

I really think it depends on the properties of the cable. Especially with really high capacitance cables but you can’t use those with Naim anyway.

I’ve always gone on the basic (and totally unscientific) guideline that if the two lengths are within 20% of each other, it’s going to be fine. Though audiophile induced OCD may nag at some people.

Hi Mark,
A few years ago I built a facsimile of a classic 1950s Fender guitar amplifier - lots of potential pitfalls and lessons learned - highly enjoyable and recommended if you like that sort of thing. My experience (amateur) is that soldering is all too easy to do badly. Good appropriate kit is surprisingly expensive and technique is critically important as is knowledge of the materials being joined.

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Just to clarify. There are myths in the audio world?

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I’ve taught my 11 year old son to solder. It’s pretty simple. If the op knows someone that can solder it would be a very simple fix.

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Hi mark

Our views clearly differ.

I’m sure you taught him everything you know.

I wouldn’t trust him to solder my cables though!:grimacing:

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The Tellurium cables are very different to something like NacA5. They contain four tiny little wires and I’d imagine are a bit tricky to connect to the plugs and then get the heat shrink right to ensure that they don’t fall apart again. I’m ok at soldering but it’s certainly not something I’d attempt.

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I agree with opus.

In addition, if the failure was due to a poor soldered joint, there may be some merit in re-terminating all of the joints, but I doubt it as I suspect metal fatigue in the wire.

If it was me I would learn to solder, it is a really handy skill to have especially in the world of audio. It is easy to master, practice, good prep, cleanliness and buy the right iron for the job in hand. They are not expensive by anyone’s standards and certainly not by most here.

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I can certainly understand why someone would think it is tricky but for someone with experience it is quite simple. There are much more tricky things to solder in the hifi world. I have some litz pure silver interconnects which contain 8 solid conductors in teflon tubes braided together that have to be sealed to ensure no oxidation. At one time I converted them to rca and later, back to xlr. Each time stripping the ends for fresh clean joints and belling out the cores to ensure correct connections. It was tedious.

Anyway I won’t keep going on about it. Whatever the op is comfortable with. It just seems a shame to buy new cables because one plug fell off. As you mentioned previously, tellurium don’t charge much to terminate the ends anyway.

I have recent experience.

I Tellurium Q Black II fitted under the floorboards, and our floor fitters managed to cut through one of the cables where it emerges into the listening room (I was not pleased). Initially I thought about taking the cable to a hi-fi shop and getting them to cut back and resolder as appropriate. I thought I’d check with Tellurium to be on the safe side and they said it is difficult cable to work with and it would be best to send it back, so I did.

My cables are 8m long, and I sent both back. They cut back 1 metre on the damaged cable and said there was no need to cut the other cable back. They reterminated both cables at both ends. They did the work the day it arrived and it was in the post back to me the next day. It cost peanuts, and probably less than I would have had to pay for the components if I did it myself.

I can’t hear any difference despite one length being 1m shorter than the other.

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It’s worth bearing mind that regardless of what other manufacturers may recommend here, with speaker cable on Naim power amps, Naim’s recommendation in the manual is as follows;
Loudspeaker cables are vitally important. They should each be at least 3.5 metres long and of equal length.

I would guess that equal length here is important because, with Naim power amps, the cables form part of the amp circuit. Having experienced for myself how different lengths of NACA5 can affect the overall sound, I would want both channels to be performing as close as possible.

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I bought my speakers from them 35 years ago when they were at Bracken Ash!

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SMALL differences in cable length (say less than 3%, maybe even 10%) such as occur from re-terminating cables, make no significant difference.

Large differences are best avoided (I certainly wouldn’t want a load with asymmetric reactance on the power amps I designed).

So, I just asked Tellurium and they said:

"We routinely supply uneven lengths, and have even been awarded product of the year for two different cables (The Ear, Ultra Black II and HiFi World, Black Diamond). Both were 5m/3m uneven lengths.

If an equipment manufacturer specifies a cable has to be the same length or even a specific length we have to assume they have a good reason for that and do not contradict their advice as they understand their individual designs."

My mistake was not telling them I had a Naim amp, so for my own piece of mind the longer one will be going back.

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