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XLR cable length & optimal audio quality

ethanhallbeyer

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Feb 24, 2019
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i hear that keeping speaker cable length makes a difference in sound quality and you should keep lengths short. i also hear xlr cables can run longer without degradation in quality/signal. i have monoblock amps so i can put them right next to each speaker and keep speaker cables super short. but i may need to put the rme unit further away and will need longer xlr cables (like 20’). will the compromise the signal quality?
 

Blumlein 88

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No signal quality compromise. Your plan is a good one. Proceed and don't worry about it.
 

AnalogSteph

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20' should be well within the output driving capabilities of any decent XLR output... I might start worrying about nonlinear cable dielectric properties at about 10 times that, at which point frequency response would still be perfectly fine. (RME output impedance seems to be 200 ohms balanced typical, so that's the value I assumed, along with ~50 pf/ft worth of cable capacitance.)
 
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