READERS’ LETTERS: Long interconnects or speaker cables?

A member writes:

My speaker cables are 2.5m and XLR interconnects are 1m. With a minimal stacked “two component” floor height of 12″ (set between the speakers-CD source variable outputs driving power amp inputs) and wide dispersion stand monitor baffles centered at 40″ listening height, there is no sonic deterioration of imaging or soundstage holographics (as compared to my previous component rack off to the left wall)!! 🙂

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A member writes:

XLR microphone cables are used by pros up to 50 meters and more without any problems. Think of big stages and distances to the mixer desk. And if it is a good pro cable there was no difference when driven by low impedance like 50 ohms. Earlier standard was 600 ohms when used with tube buffer stage an an output transformer. So a few meters will make no problems at all. Of course the receiver amp should have also a balanced input. But I do not believe that a shorter speaker cable will make much difference if big enough cross section and of copper. But this is an endless debate which I cannot win.

A member writes:

What is the definition of „short“ here? If the shortest speaker cable would always give the best sound quality compared to a „longer“ one, then everybody should have mono power amps or even active speakers.
My personal experience shows that I never got significant improvements in sound quality from more expensive or high-end interconnects – except phono/tonearm cables. But loudspeaker cables from XLO, Nordost, Shunyata and Ansuz rendered huge improvements. To a lesser extent but still significant improvements could be achieved from “better” power cables. However, in the end you need a minimum length of loudspeaker cables for getting an acceptable width of the sound stage – unless you go for mono amps or active loudspeakers.
But the most important and basic “tweaks” for improvements in sound quality are acoustic room treatment, set-up, DSP- and measurement based equalization and crosstalk cancellation followed by vibration control and clean mains power supply.

A member writes:

Looking to the trends in audio then the active loudspeaker driven over wireless connection will be a big part of the future. Of course cable connection will also stay since there is more freedom in using different equipment. Beside this many studio monitor speakers are active today although this is a long lived concept since the 1970ies I guess. German company Klein+Hummel made some of these for radio stations. Due to lack of a passive divider network many of the speaker chassis efficiency mismatch problems and adjustments are gone.

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