For as long as I can remember my systems have been on an opposite wall from my speakers. This has led to many problems, the least of which is how to deal with the excess cable from one leg/run. It also runs the cable cost up since I've needed pairs approaching 17 ft for my last system. My latest system requires 13 ft to the farthest speaker. After considering many of the leading cables I was leaning towards the new
Audience AU24 SX. A four meter pair would have cost me around $4000.
So what are the options? As always, if I go with the matched pair I'll have to coil the excess and find a way to support it off the floor as I'm a great believer in acrylic cable risers. If I find a company to make me a pair of unmatched lengths, is there a difference in sound, imaging, balance, etc.? You will find many parties on both sides of this argument.
I've got one foot over the line - to the side that believes speaker cables should be equal length.
Thankfully, many companies are willing to make unequal pairs and then re-terminate the long one at a later date for a price. This solves the re-sell issue and Audience is in the group that will do this. That still doesn't solve the sonic differences of unequal pairs if they exist. I've also always thought that a coiled speaker cable could potentially act as a RFI/EMI attracting antenna. If so, is there also a downside to equal length pairs used in this configuration? I suppose that depends on the length of the excess.
That brings me to a solution that I found due to the many posts on Audiogon regarding Cerious Technologies. After reading the glowing reviews about their speaker cables, I sent an email to Bob Grost from Cerious regarding these questions. Here is his response:
"We make "matched"
pairs of speaker cables in different lengths (we are currently making a set that
are 6 foot/15 foot...). What sets us apart is that we do not run our wire off
of a spool. No matter what wire you use a different length of 6 ft/15 ft
will sound different and screw up the imaging. We use an 8 foot length as a
reference and build conductors to a specific length that perform exactly like
the reference. So...a 15 foot long conductor of GE SC will be 1.75 times the
effective gauge as an 8 foot conductor. Your case of a 8 ft/13 ft set will
image dead center on vocals unlike standard wire based conductors. A
set of GE SC in 8 ft/13 ft lengths would be $799 set."
My first thought was $799? - what a steal considering their reputation, the technology, and the competition. Then, and most importantly, unequal doesn't have to mean unmatched. I placed the order and received the cables a few weeks ago. I now have 50+ hours on them and they have surpassed my expectations both in build/finish quality and performance. They also image dead-center as Bob promised. These are very musical cables that have tons of inner detail and don't break the bank!
When it comes time to sell, I don't have the enormous investment in these that I couldn't find a buyer for a good price as is. I would have lost far more than $799 re-selling most of the cables I was considering.
