will different lengths affect sound

Bill, you are telling me that what I can do on a regular basis is impossible.

You're not the first to tell me such & such is impossible. I have had industry insiders including designers, manufacturers, repair technitians all tell me at one time that differences in sound pertaining to cables was not possible, or that it was negligible. To a person I demonstrated to them in my room that they were wrong - politely, of course. I am not naming names because if I were in their shoes I likely would not want my name associated with such a situation publicly.

In one case it was in regards to power supplies, as the other party said power cords cannot influence the sound of a power supply for an electrostatic speaker. Well... when in my room he heard differently he admitted that yes, power cords could influence some types of power supplies.

BTW, prior to the demonstration for him others taking his logical tack threw their derision my way, but amazingly after he posted that I had been right they changed their mind based solely on his testimony.

Another manufacturer proudly stated that he used cheapie cabling because they didn't matter that much. Well... after a demo in my system that manufacturer bought new cables for his audio show system.

You can feel free to doubt, but as they say, "While some are saying, 'It can't be done,' others are out doing it."

As for you, Rok2id, I recall you stating that you can't get your hands on the majority of equipment by which such things would be tested. I believe you have previously admitted that you are arguing your points from logic, not experience. I used to do that, and I was wrong much of the time. It takes only one or two experiences to show how far off base your logic is from the reality. Occasionally you will see in the threads a theme to the effect, "I just tried different cables," or "There IS a difference in cables..." IOW, they finally tried and found out how easily heard such things can be.

Similar the differences between a 1M and 2M interconnect.
I am not suggesting that hearing the difference would be as easy as falling over, or that even the average audiophile with a moderately capable rig would be able to discern it. In general terms you would need an extremely fine rig, perhaps in the $80-100K range and up. It has to have truly exceptional definition and clarity. If not you likely will not hear the difference. Now, simply because most people don't experience it does not mean it's not possible. Is it a more elitist excercise? Yes, because it pertains to a level of peformance most people will never achieve. But if an audiophile with good hearing were to compare they would hear it.

'I believe you have previously admitted that you are arguing your points from logic, '
hahahaha Its a strange feeling to be ACCUSED of using logic. But Yes, I do plead GUILTY to using logic. And a lot of people do say they can hear wire, same length or not. I would be able to understand a lot better, and maybe others also, if, you would give DETAILS on exactly what you mean by 'I can hear a difference' describe the difference, what were you listening to, music, a test tone, what? how did this difference manifest itself? could you hear it as soon as you walked in the room? Was it a blind test? Were the IC's changed without you knowing which IC was playing? Did you get it right 100% of the time? did you have to put a stethoscope on the speaker? Take us through the process you went through. This is important. A lot of people are on the fence about this. If you could hear this difference with music, what CD did you use?

Douglas, one does not need $100k system to clearly hear the difference between 1M and 2M interconnects; it gets a little tougher, at least for me, comparing 0.5M and 1M interconnects. Also, I suppose it depends on particular cable. But no I didn't compare 0.5M, 1M and 2M Purist Dominus or something like that. So, I think the general answer would be - it depends.

I do enjoy cable threads, don't they just pull us all together into one happy family :-)..

Al, again, has clarified the situation regarding speaker cable length, and with reference to the OP and real life situations, a few feet of the same cable won't be audible. How many of us place our head in a 'brace', precisely measured from each drive unit/panel or whatever? The time the wave takes from the transducer to our ears will have more impact in what we hear and when.

The interesting part of the AJ Conti / Basis thing is that no one perceived any difference in the 12 fold increase to one speaker of the inductance and capacitance values of the speaker cable, also the resistance, but if the gauge was large enough and volume not too high this may not have been an issue anyway. So, as Al correctly pointed out the length would not be audible, but the characteristic impedance difference maybe? Also, how was that 75' length laid out? in a coil? That should have made some audible channel imbalance i would have thought?

Regarding interconnects, as the signal is so small, doubling the capacitance and it's effect's may well be audible, ie 1m to 2m. I know that using a longer single ended cables, 5m + is definitely degrading, so 1-2m will also, just proportionately less.
Regards,
Ps

PS68, thanks very much. I should further clarify my earlier comment, however. As it appears you realize but others may not, I was not saying that the effects of a considerable difference in speaker cable lengths will necessarily be inaudible. I was saying two things:

1)There will be no audible effects AS A RESULT OF the difference between the two channels in propagation delay/arrival time.

2)If the longer cable is chosen such that it behaves in an essentially neutral manner with the particular speaker and amplifier, the shorter one will also behave in a neutral manner, and therefore they will perform identically.

As you realize, for item (2) to occur the resistance and inductance (actually, inductive reactance) of the longer cable have to be insignificant in relation to speaker impedance at all frequencies that matter, and capacitance has to not be excessively high (in which case it might affect the behavior of the amplifier). Also, it is conceivable that under some circumstances the amplifier may be sensitive to rfi (radio frequency interference) that may be picked up by the cables and enter its feedback loop, if it has one. That pickup would figure to be length sensitive, although of course with essentially no predictability.

Other less readily explainable effects may come into play, as well.

So while I would approach claims of audible effects due to speaker cable length differences with a good deal of skepticism, I would not completely rule out the possibility that they may be perceivable under some circumstances. Especially if the cables are not chosen such that their parameters result in neutral or near-neutral behavior in the particular application.

Best regards,
-- Al