Shorten my speaker cables?

[cujo8]

I've always wanted to shorten/buy better speaker cables, but my room configuration limits my speaker placement. My left front is about 10' from my audio gear and we have to walk between the speaker and the home theater setup, so the speaker wire has been run down into the basement and then back up to the speaker. This ends up making the speaker wire length ~ 25' and I also am bi-wiring all the front speakers, so I end up with ~50' of speaker on each side. This amount of speaker cable makes me very unlikely to upgrade to better speaker wire. I am using Audioquests CV-1 speaker wire on the front speakers at this time. I could probably shorten them ~ 5-7', since I they about that much longer than I really need. Do you folks think I should shorten my speaker cables as much as possible? Thanks.

[Butch]

Originally Posted by SoundsGr8tome

Conventional Wisdom is: Use SHORTER spkr cable and LONGER interconnects, if
a choice must be made between the two. The only performance exception is if you are using
a passive pre-amp. So.....

KEEP the longer cables and sell them.
USE/buy shorter speaker cables (the same brand and model if you are satisfied with them).
Buy GOOD WINE with the difference!
ENJOY the MUSIC and the WINE!

I've always heard that interconnects should be short (1-2 meters)and speaker cables long(3 to 4 meters). The reasoning being that the low level signals carried by interconnects are influenced to a larger degree by external forces than the higher level signals present in speaker cable. Have I been mislead?

[dibenzylacetone]

Originally Posted by Butch

• NEVER use speaker cables shorter than 8'. Amazingly, 4' sounds much worse than 8'. Contrary to common belief, shorter interconnects (2 m or less) and longer speaker cables sound WAY BETTER than the opposite—based on extensive head-to-head tests.

Always beware of statements like the above, when an explanation as to why the statement is true is not offered. A good example being "Always tie the extra slack in each power cord into a bow tie shape - it sounds better that way"

[Dr.Venkmann]

Originally Posted by andytk5

I have a set of Mirage M3si's that have an excessive length of the fat high dollar speaker cable hooked to them. I was wondering if I should shorten them since 1. I don't need the length and 2. It is just a longer distance for the signal to be sent?

As the electrical signal travels at approximately 81% the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) what do you think cutting a few feet off a speaker cable will accomplish? Test in Magenpan's labs have shown that speaker cables should never be shorter than eight feet to creates the best sonic result. No one knows exactly why that is but if I were you I would not sweat even a twenty foot cable!