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Speaker cable length for L/R channels critical?

I have a good system that utilizes some older discontinued speaker cable that I like a lot. It is 10 feet in length and I need that length to reach the left speaker. The amp is not (and cannot be) located center between the speakers.
The problem is I wish to biwire and have an opportunity to buy a 6 foot pair. The question is this: Can I run both 10 foot cables to the left speaker and run the 6 foot pair to right without any wierd effects like "ghosting" or have one channel be clearer or louder than the other? Any ideas? Thanx
ceb222
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Mt10425...At the speed sound travels, (about 1000 ft/sec) a 10 foot difference would matter. But what travels in speaker cables is electricity, not sound, and at about 982 Million feet per second there will be no measurable timing difference between speakers. Loudness, and tonal quality will get you an argument about 10 feet. (But the same would be true about 6 inches!)
morbius396c
134 posts
 
The speed of light in a vacuum is 974 million feet
per second.

Electricity in copper travels at about 94% of the speed of
light in a vacuum.

Therefore, the signal travels at 916 million feet per
second in the cable.

Therefore, the difference in timing for a 4 foot difference
in cable length is about 4 nanoseconds[ billionths of a second ].

An easy rule of thumb is to remember that light travels
about 1 foot per nanosecond.

Dr. Gregory Greenman
Physicist
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
In context of speaker wires, the difference between 982 Million feet per second, and 916 Million feet per second is something that only a Physicist would worry about :)
ceb222 OP
15 posts
 
I have heard many times that electricity travels at the speed of light through a conductor. Dr Greenman says in a vacuum it travels close to that. I do not have a Phd but I do have a degree in electrical engineering and what I believe to be true (at least what I was taught) that electricity, which are the valence or free electrons in a given conductor travel very slowly, they crawl so to speak, and it is the effects of electricity that appear to travel at or near the speed of light. For example: You throw the light switch in a dark room and the light comes on. The effect is almost instantaneous. It is only the next free electron in the circuit waiting to be pushed by the electro motive force (120V) that was located closest to the filament. Sorry for the rant but I get tired of hearing that electricity travels near the speed of light. IT DON'T!
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Ceb222...But what is "electricity". I think it is the disturbance, not the matter, and the disturbance does propagate at or near light speed.
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