If the left side speaker cable is 2m, the audio signal will arrive at that speaker in ~0.0058s.
If the right side is 5m, the audio signal will arrive at that side in ~0.0146s.
A timing gap of ~0.0088s.
For context (a), dCS Rossini clock accuracy is measured, as shipped, at +/- 1ppm, which I know is not exactly equivalent, but in seconds, is 0.000001s.
For context (b) the Varèse is a mono DAC. Do you think dCS would accept a product that had, by design, a timing gap of this magnitude in the system? I think not.
For context (3) the speed of light is 300,000,000 m/s, six orders of magnitude faster that the sound, so if a dual optical connection were somehow needed, I would be more in your camp @PAR.
Again, just my two cents but I would stick with the same lengths on speaker cables.
@keiserrg ChatGPT confirmed my initial suspicion with your post (as it is way beyond my pay grade)
343m/second is through the air. The real number is 5000-6000 m/s - through solids ie wire -or considerably faster. Perhaps that will change the calculation on how much discrepancy there will be within two different lengths of wire?
Sometimes. The speed of sound varies according to temperature. So if, like me, your listening room is cooler on one side than the other the relative speed of sound propagation will be different when comparing the speakers.
Fortunately it is way more complicated than you suggest
This velocity is the speed with which electromagnetic waves penetrate into the conductor and is not the drift velocity of the conduction electrons. In copper at 60 Hz, v ≈ 3.2 m/s.
Which in itself is a electromagnetic wave. See the quoted article.
The speed at which energy or signals travel down a cable is actually the speed of the electromagnetic wave traveling along (guided by) the cable. I.e., a cable is a form of a waveguide.
You guys crack me up. Speaker cable length doesn’t matter as far as propagation delay. It is much more important for speaker placement. I would have to do the calculations, but even 1 mm off of speaker placement probably equates to thousands of meters of cable length difference!
The Stenheims hold their own. Tonally very similar. The Stenheims have a slightly crisper midrange and disappear more completely than the Quads (!!), but the Quads were 2905s, so they had more high-quality bass. I’m 72 and probably have a downsize coming my way someday, so the Stenheims definitely win on portability.
. . . if you look real closely, you’ll notice the Stenheims are resting on the stands that came with the Celesion 6Si’s I purchased 35 years ago. The speakers themselves are alive and well in a young friend’s vinyl rig in Brooklyn.
My take on all this and what I have to do in my room.
2m and 5m different length speaker cables, might make a difference you can hear or not. As it will depend on loads of different combinations.
The room, is it exactly the same both sides, completely symmetrical? If not that will certainly make the sound reach you at different times. Then your hearing, this will also more than likely be different between ears. Also the speakers themselves will have different performance levels, along with the rest of the system.
So add all that up and and basically it boils down to just listening, and then adjusting the speakers to give you a 50/50 balance where you sit. I have to have one speaker about 30mm further forward to the other to give me the centre balance. This is basically down to the room, and reflection differences.
But easily sorted with speaker placement, and what might be needed in this case.
Upon further research, I want to be the first to recognize that I made a mistake in my prior post, wrongly believing that the analog signal travels at the speed of sound in the speaker cable. @par is correct. The correct framework is: (a) Signal from amp at the speed of light (c = 3e8 m/s); adjusted by (b) the Velocity of Propagation (VoP), which for copper wire, additional research indicates, is approximately 60-70% of that value. Therefore, any timing delta versus left and right channels with 2m and 5m speaker cable lengths, respectively, would indeed be very small. There may be other reasons why keeping these lengths equal is important, but I will leave that to others more knowledgeable to clarify. Cheers. R
3.2 m/s.
