Short clock cables advise

So going to get the Lina clock to sit directly under my Lina Dac.
Going with the Geistnote 75 Apogee Wyde Eye BNC cables but for aesthetic reasons it would be good to go with their .33 m option. (Limited edition pink!!!)
I read conflicting views on BNC minimal lengths/sound degradation, so can anyone advise?
On a second note has anyone compared their XLR cables? (currently running transparent plus to my ATC SCM50ASL’s)
Many Thanks

I am going to repeat myself in part here as I have answered both of these questions before.

TIn regard to the wordclock cable here may be a reflection of the signal caused by the change of impedance at the connector. Ideally the cable should be long enough to attenuate this reflection. A rule of thumb is that lengths over 1.5m may be adequate . However as is typical with this hobby not all agree or think that short cables may be preferable for other reasons and that propagation delay is insignificant. As Wyde Eye cables are inexpensive you could buy both 0.33m and 1.5m and try :wink: Or just buy the 0.33m but be prepared for a longer length if you find yourself dissatisfied.

Yes as you probably know I have ATC SCM 50 ASL. Yes, I have compared XLR cables and yes they make a difference. However I will no longer recommend cables. Firstly if you ask here for a cable recommendation then if you get 10 replies you will receive 10 different recommendations. Secondly all of the cable manufacturers that I can think of offer sensibly designed cables. No one offers an electrically weird or inadequate design. Yet people hear a difference. However when it is said that x is a “better” cable what is really meant is that the person prefers it. Everyone’s preference will vary . Therefore the only way for you to find out if Transparent is to remain your favourite ( there is no objective means of telling - it is excellent electrically as are its competitors) is to buy or borrow alternatives. There are dozens of brands out there with new cables introduced throughout the year . No doubt even more may come to light at the Munich show.

Remember that nobody has heard all the combination of all cable choices with your equipment anyway let alone in your room or with your individual tastes.

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Hi Pete, many thanks for your reply
I will order them in .33 and 1.5 and listen objectively lol
The xlr question was more out of interest in the brand itself as it seems to have great reviews on its products :+1:

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Klint, I echo Pete’s statements about cable recommendations. I only add that the ‘cable journey’, or perhaps it is a quest, can yield very worthwhile results. My own recent adventures resulted in both new XLR interconnects and speaker cables, and a leap in sound quality. I know a couple of other people on the Forum who have the same brand as me. I’m happy to talk about them via a personal message - there is no secret about them but I am determined not to add to the the pile of brand names, occasionally bizarre cable names, and recommendations that already exist in threads here and elsewhere.

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Hi @PAR ,
I know this post is about clock cables, but per below, I’d like to hear from you and others about ultra short speaker cables

Some monoblock + speaker combinations enable very short runs, e.g. 0.5 meters or less. I was under the impression that shorter was better for speaker cables. Any thoughts on this please?

The use of very short speaker cables is not advisable with some amplifier designs. The one which comes to mind is Naim where the inherent inductance of the cable is used as part of the circuit scheme to provide stability. This was certainly the case up to and including the olive case series and may be so for later models but I do not know as I have not been a user of Naim for many years. I can say that for those early models the minimum length of Naim NAC A5 cable was 3m . Use of shorter lengths or other cables could result in the amplifier failing.

Other than the above I cannot think of a caveat beyond the fact that short cables are only feasible with a dual mono amplification system in order to enable the placement of speakers for stereo using long interconnects from source or preamp to the amplifiers.

There used to be an idiom that said the British way was short interconnects with long speaker cables and the American way which was long interconnects with short speaker cables :grinning:.

As I have active speakers with built in amplification I do not use speaker cables per se although the cables from the internal amps to speaker drive units are only a few centimetres long.

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Thank you Pete.

Re: below, I thought that interconnects, in particular, balanced interconnects, were specifically designed to cover large distances…

Yes in the sense that long interconnects are more likely to pick up EMI or RFI. Of course the balanced circuit technique is not limited to interconnects or other cables but is commonly used in various types of circuit or in components such as OP amps.

dCS factory listening room indicates long run of interconnects, and short speaker runs from monos to speakers (DAC is located on the right, from where the picture is taken). This is similar to the approach taken by @demoleon, which I personally like:

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