Setup Question...Longer Speaker Cables or ICs?

[awtryau89]

Maybe Lex or Jon can jump in here with scientific reasonings.

Okay first of all, here is what I am running:

Pioneer 56TXi>Adcom 5503>JM Lab Electra 926s and CC901.

<cable brands deleted>

Here is my question. I have the opportunity to run this system one of two ways. I can place my amp in the equipment closet and connect it with 3ft interconnects and then run 22ft of speaker cable to each speaker. Or I can place the amp in the front of the room and run 20ft interconnects to it and then run 6ft or less speaker cables to the speakers. Which is preferrable? Money is not an issue as I already have all the necessary cables and lengths. I just want to make sure on which way is the best sonically as I do not want to have to pull these wires more than a few times. Thanks for the help.

[David Meek]

Eric, there have been a few threads on this recently (no, this isn't a "just go search" comment ) and IIRC the majority opinion seems to be short speaker cables and long interconnects (shielded) are the best performance option. That's assuming the various cables are of similar quality, of course.

[Lefteris]

Ok, we all know that in terms of electric current, and by that I mean analogue transmission, the signal is effected by the length, and the diameter of the conductor. Nevertheless, ICs transmit a signal little in power, compared to the signal the power amp sends. Thus, the power amp can send the signal in longer distances. However, you end up with distorsion, because the higher the current, the bigger the resistance of a given condustor gets. So what's the answer? I'd say stack your amp with the resto of the equipment, and since the signal is transmitted mostly on the surface of the cable (esoterically, that is) double-wire. This is, because chances are, you'll have to pay much more for ICs that produce the same result as normal-priced speaker cable, since they have to have the same cable quality, plus the end plugs ,that have to be better as the length rises. I also think that that's your better choice, since you'll ue plain RCA interconnects (nothing wrong with that, "plain" isn't underestimative). And, finally, if you think that you don't like the resault, you can always lessen the resistance with triple or quadraple wiring, but you just can't do that as efficiently with ICs, because they would have to begin and end at some kind of splitters that never work as well as plain, same make same metal alloy, speaker cable.

The best way though, is experiment, but to me it's just plain physics!

Cheers.