Hergest Posted June 24, 2017 Posted June 24, 2017 (edited) This might seem a daft question but I shall ask it anyway. I currently bi-wire from a stereo power amp using a standard interconnect between pre and power amps and then 4 metres of speaker cable. The speaker cable has roughly 150mm of individual wires exposed both ends with the remainder sheathed. In a week or two I will be using 2 monoblocks placed right next to each speaker and will use 4 metre lengths of balanced interconnects from pre to powers which then allows me to use speaker cables of the minimal length possible which I reckon will be no more than 300mm. My question is; is there any need to use a cable with an outer sheath? Can I just use 4 individual wires in the same way that the final 150mm are at the moment? Edited June 24, 2017 by Hergest
Zaphod Beeblebrox Posted June 24, 2017 Posted June 24, 2017 Nope. 300mm of speaker cable is very short. Keeping speaker cables as short as that negates any fancy schemes that reduce cable effects and is the best option. 2
Hergest Posted June 24, 2017 Author Posted June 24, 2017 Thanks Trevor. Common sense dictates that is the case but I did wonder.
andyr Posted June 25, 2017 Posted June 25, 2017 As Trevor said - the shorter the cable ... the better the sound (due to minimum degradation by the cable). However, I would suggest that it would be better to twist the red & the green, and the white & the black wires together - rather than leave them apart as shown in your pic. Twisting the pairs together reduces the cable inductance - which is a good thing (even though the wires are only 300mm long). You may even get better separation from what you're going to do (putting monoblocs right behind the speakers) - as the pair of wires driving the tweeters are no longer running in close proximity for 4 meters, to the wires driving the woofers. Andy
Hergest Posted June 25, 2017 Author Posted June 25, 2017 1 hour ago, andyr said: As Trevor said - the shorter the cable ... the better the sound (due to minimum degradation by the cable). However, I would suggest that it would be better to twist the red & the green, and the white & the black wires together - rather than leave them apart as shown in your pic. Twisting the pairs together reduces the cable inductance - which is a good thing (even though the wires are only 300mm long). You may even get better separation from what you're going to do (putting monoblocs right behind the speakers) - as the pair of wires driving the tweeters are no longer running in close proximity for 4 meters, to the wires driving the woofers. Andy Okay, cheers for that, it's an easy thing to try out twisting the wires.
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