Speaker cable length for L/R channels critical?

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!

Ceb222...But what is "electricity". I think it is the disturbance, not the matter, and the disturbance does propagate at or near light speed.

Remember your brain/ears are resolute to time and phase response as well as frequency response.The more resolute the rest of your system is the more cable length will matter..It all is additive..Tom

Theaudiotweak...Not to belabor the point, but a 20KHz wave traveling at 916 Million ft/sec is 45,000 ft long (about 8.7 miles). Ten feet represents 0.000218 of a wavelength, and corresponds to a phase angle of 0.078 degrees.

My brain/ears are not that good!

This is an example of misapplied science so prevalent in audiophile circles. True, science says that there will definitely be a phasing discrepancy, but a very little bit of math (conveniently neglected) shows that it is completely inaudible.

You cannot hear time and phase errors while your speakers swing free air like a pendulum. Tom