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Do speaker cables for L & R channels have to be the same length?

Do left and right channel speaker cables have to be the same length?


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blestin

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I am a little confused as there is a lot of conflicting information about this, do cables for right and left channels need to be the same length?

The manual for Revel F226be specifically states that left and right channel speaker cables have to be the same exact legnth.
From the manual "• No matter which connection method you choose, the speaker cables used for the left and right loudspeakers should always be the same length."

Maybe someone can clarify this issue for me, as I am currently using a 3 foot speaker cable and a 8 foot speaker cable as one speaker is further away from the amplifier than the other.

Thanks in advance
 

Doodski

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I am a little confused as there is a lot of conflicting information about this, do cables for right and left channels need to be the same length?

The manual for Revel F226be specifically states that left and right channel speaker cables have to be the same exact legnth.
From the manual "• No matter which connection method you choose, the speaker cables used for the left and right loudspeakers should always be the same length."

Maybe someone can clarify this issue for me, as I am currently using a 3 foot speaker cable and a 8 foot speaker cable as one speaker is further away from the amplifier than the other.

Thanks in advance
You can use different lengths as long as you use a decent sized/gauge conductor and don't make them hundreds of meters or a kilometer in length. There is no reflection or high line loss occurring unless you have RF frequencies and a very long conductor. :D
 
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blestin

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So why does Revel state in it's user manual to use the same length of cable for Revel F226be, I am just confused about it.
So short lengths such as 3 feet vs 8 feet should not matter?
 

Doodski

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So why does Revel state in it's user manual to use the same length of cable for Revel F226be, I am just confused about it.
So short lengths such as 3 feet vs 8 feet should not matter?
Revel is nit picking when it is not required. A length of 3 feet combined with a 8 footer is OK.
 

ThatM1key

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Its preferred to have the same length on each speaker but you don't have to. I mean 1 cable can be like 1-5 feet longer than they other. I think with OFC cables, you can run the wires longer. For my mini home theater, I run 12 gauge ofc in the front and 14 gauge ofc in the back.
 

Doodski

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12 gauge or 14 gauge is more than enough. Very good conductor for that kind of length.
 

ThatM1key

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Audio signal travels at about 75% the speed of light in speaker cables. So, there's no issue from a relative time delay aspect.
Extra length would add increased resistance and differing inductance and capacitance, but not nearly enough to make any difference with nominal lengths.
The Revel recommendation is complete nonsense. Probably some nub in their marketing department came up with that.

Dave.
 

wwenze

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It's like asking for the same length of cable, does the gauge need to match in both.

Yes there's a difference. No it doesn't matter once they are similar enough.
 

Doodski

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Unless your using CCA wire.
I've never seen a copper clad aluminum speaker wire. I have seen where one conductor is silver/gray color and the other is copper colored and seems to be solid copper. I suppose there's money to be made by faking the conductor integrity and using aluminum.
 

Beave

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I've never seen a copper clad aluminum speaker wire. I have seen where one conductor is silver/gray color and the other is copper colored and seems to be solid copper. I suppose there's money to be made by faking the conductor integrity and using aluminum.

There's lots of cca speaker wire out there. Tons of it (literally?) on Amazon.com. cca just has a little higher resistance than pure copper. But it's lighter and cheaper.
 

ThatM1key

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I've never seen a copper clad aluminum speaker wire. I have seen where one conductor is silver/gray color and the other is copper colored and seems to be solid copper. I suppose there's money to be made by faking the conductor integrity and using aluminum.

The Amazonbasics Speaker wire is CCA. I paid extra to have Maxbrite's OFC wire. CCA does work but I had troubles with it. On my first home theater setup, I used 16 CCA wire for all of it. After a year the oxygen got the wire and my wires were greenish/blueish and not conducting well.
 

Doodski

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There's lots of cca speaker wire out there. Tons of it (literally?) on Amazon.com. cca just has a little higher resistance than pure copper. But it's lighter and cheaper.
I brushed up on the CCA stuff and apparently it's 30-40% higher resistance than pure copper. That would make a big difference especially in B+ car audio power wires and high voltage/current speaker wires.
 

ThatM1key

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Heres a demo of OFC vs CCA.
 

Katji

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The Revel recommendation is complete nonsense. Probably some nub in their marketing department came up with that.
Policy decision so as to avoid odd/weird cases.../odd/weird users.
 

Katji

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I've never seen a copper clad aluminum speaker wire. I have seen where one conductor is silver/gray color and the other is copper colored and seems to be solid copper. I suppose there's money to be made by faking the conductor integrity and using aluminum.
They are both copper, the one is tin-plated...and I have no idea why except that it makes it obvious which is which, instead of making it with red stripe/marker.

I have seen CCA speaker wire... big department store, used to have packaged short lengths of speaker wire of well-known local brand, but when I wanted some, they'd changed to some other brand, which seemed pretty much the same but then I saw that it said CCA, small print. So I went to the supplier of the name brand and bought a 100m reel.
 

DonH56

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The main reason for matching lengths is so the speakers' crossover/drivers "see" the same driving impedance to prevent small frequency variations between (among) speakers. There is also the difference in attenuation, but for most cases that is not a primary reason. And the electrical transmission speed (propagation delay) is a non-issue for any reasonable (or even unreasonable) sized room...

IME/IMO - Don
 
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