35-50 foot speaker cables, problem?

[Pultzar]

I'm looking at putting together a new audio rack and given its size, the ideal place for it is on the opposite end of my house from where my speakers are. So best case I would be looking at 35 foot speaker cables but with routing issues could be closer to 50 feet from amp to speaker. I would use Belden 10 AWG wire as I already have a bunch of it.

These are 4-way active crossover speakers. Woofers at 2ohm and the rest 4ohm if I remember correctly.

So I know that there would be some loss, but I suspect negligible? Are there other bad side effects such as increased distortion or anything else? Years ago I had a Parasound amp and it would randomly go into protection mode, even at low volumes, when I had long cables connected to it.

Amps would be NCORE or AHB2

Cheers!

*Edited to make it clear that it is active crossover

 

[Speedskater]

Tell us more about those loudspeakers.
Don't you mean 4-way passive speakers? Active speakers have an AC cord.
A 2 Ohm woofer seems very low.

 

[GXAlan]

The longer the wire, the worse the damping factor. The Parasound issue is presumably an unstable negative feedback loop.

JBL in-ceiling speakers say:
• For wire lengths of less than 50 ft (15m), use at least 16-gauge speaker wire
• For wire lengths between 50 ft and 100 ft (15m – 30m), use at least 12-gauge speaker wire.
• For wire lengths of greater than 100 ft (30m), use at least 10-gauge speaker wire.

But the theory behind monoblocks is to have long interconnects and short wires from speaker to amplifier. What speakers do you have? Maybe we can make better recommendations...

 

[Pultzar]

Linkwitz LX521. Sorry when I meant active, I meant active crossover.

 

[Pultzar]

I could put the rack in the basement very close to the speakers (below them) but that is a lot more work currently

 

[jhaider]

I would not worry about it

 

[VintageFlanker]

https://www.audioholics.com/audio-video-cables/speaker-wire-gauge

 

[Speedskater]

Linkwitz LX521. Sorry when I meant active, I meant active crossover.

They have a multi-channel amplifier, so you would need one speaker cable from each amp output.

 

[Pultzar]

They have a multi-channel amplifier, so you would need one speaker cable from each amp output.

Yeah I already have the system up and running in my theater room, but I'm adding gear and it is time for a larger rack and I want it someplace else.

 

[sneakmasterG]

See Q37
http://www.linkwitzlab.com/Amplifiers-etc/Connections.htm

 

[Bartl007]

If you buy 12 gauge 4 conductor wire and run it in series, you have an effective 9 gauge cable. This should help alleviate any concerns, even with 2ohm loads.

 

[Speedskater]

So the Linkwitz LX521 is a 3 way active speaker with a 2 Ohm dual woofer impedance.
But with each cable only attached to 1 or 1 pair of drivers. The total end-to-end cable resistance is of much less importance than when attached to a multi-driver loudspeaker with a passive cross-over.