Audio Systems: Surround Sound Speaker cable..., yamaha htr 5930, tube amplification

Question
Wayne,

I recently purchased the JBL SCS-145.5 Home Theater Speaker System (8 ohm) with a Yamaha HTR 5930 receiver. My rear speakers are about 29ft from my receiver. To my understanding, the rear two speaker cables should be equal length and the front speakers should be equal length, but all five speakers cables do not need to be the same. I had plenty  (200ft) of 16 gauge wire, thinking it wouldn't hurt and may be better, I made all speakers 32ft. Is this at least a little better or does it do more harm than good? Would it be better to and shorten the fronts?

Thanks,
Frank

Answer
In all truth, it makes very little difference either way. The whole "equal length" thing only can be detrimental if the lengths are radically different (and this is only with 2 channel amps). When I say radical, I mean something like 2 feet on the L, and 100 ft on the R...

Most of this comes from the days of tube amplification, and making sure the resistive loads stayed in relatively close balance. In modern solid state amps, they are MUCH more forgiving. Also, many of these have discrete amps for each channel, so it makes even less of a difference because there's no interaction between channels.

While it's not a detriment to your system to have them all 32', you may as well clean up your installation and just cut them to the lengths you need.

One thing to always keep in mind is this - of all the cabling in any sound system, speaker cabling is the LEAST critical. As long as you have a sufficient gauge wire for the current output of the amp, you really need to worry about nothing else. Be very wary of retailers (online or in the big box stores) selling expensive cabling. I've seen some products selling for more than $10k for 8 feet of speaker cable.... no I'm not kidding (google "Audioquest K2") Stick with your 16 to 14 AWG and you're golden...