PA speaker cable lengths

[Thom Thumb]

Hello,

 

Hopefully somebody can assist me with this question:

 

I am putting together a pa system, and think it would make more sense to have one longer cable, (like a 50 ft) and one shorter (25-35 ft) speakon cable, since the power amp will most likely not be directly in the center on the stage.

 

Is this acceptable in terms of resistance, impedance, and phasing, or will I be sacrificing something?

 

Thanks in advance for you help!

 

[abzurd]

Shouldn't be an issue. Just get decent cables, 12 or 13 gauge. That said, consider getting 2, 50 ft cables. You can always make longer cables work for shorter runs, but the opposite is not true and you'll often have to route cables, up, over, under, around, etc in various venues.

[Thom Thumb]

Shouldn't be an issue. Just get decent cables, 12 or 13 gauge. That said, consider getting 2, 50 ft cables. You can always make longer cables work for shorter runs, but the opposite is not true and you'll often have to route cables, up, over, under, around, etc in various venues.

 

ah, good point. Thanks for the advice. Fwiw, I also have a case of the "cheapskates", and the 25' cable I am looking at is like $25 (amazon), and the 50 foot is like $67,

 

But yeah. 2 50's are probably a better move.

[agedhorse]

What kind of PA? How much (real) power? It's likely that 14 gauge is plenty big for many applications, even at 50'

 

May I suggest http://www.audiopile.net as a better or more reasonable source for quality cables? Unless you know exactly what you are looking at, it's easy to get Chinese knock-offs and counterfeits of better quality cables. This is not a worry with Audiopile IME.

[Thom Thumb]

What kind of PA? How much (real) power? It's likely that 14 gauge is plenty big for many applications, even at 50'

 

May I suggest http://www.audiopile.net as a better or more reasonable source for quality cables? Unless you know exactly what you are looking at, it's easy to get Chinese knock-offs and counterfeits of better quality cables. This is not a worry with Audiopile IME.

 

Thanks for the link!

 

 

Its a relatively small pa, 1000 watt powered mixer, w 8 inputs. Small to med venues, I'll be running a couple 15" mains, 12" ,monitors, and occassionally a 18" powered sub.

[agedhorse]

14 gauge will be plenty for your rig, no need to over-buy or spend more than necessary. It's more important to get a good quality cable than a bigger one, especially because I'm seeing more "bigger looking" cables that do not have all copper conductors, so even tough it's 12 gauge because on conductor diameter, it's only 16 gauge based on conductivity (which is all that matters).

 

The other issue with copper clad aluminum is that it tends to be fracture prone, leading to failure.

[Stingray5]

Since were on the subject of speaker wire is it a no no to splice about 5 ft of wire to an existing speaker cable 14 ga ?

[Craig Vecchione]

Since were on the subject of speaker wire is it a no no to splice about 5 ft of wire to an existing speaker cable 14 ga ?

 

All depends on how the cable will be used, and how the splice is made. I would have no problem with a quality splice on an installed or studio cable that won't see much movement or be coiled frequently. The same splice on a cable used for frequent touring use?....no way....get another cable and use the shorter cable where its length is appropriate.

 

For me, a good splice is soldered in-line (not as if a wirenut would be used over it) and then shrink-wrapped, so the insulation is permanent, and the ends are somewhat protected from mechanical movement...the shrink tube acts as a quasi strain relief for the splice point. Soldering with shrink tube nearby is more difficult, but the end result justifies the extra care not to prematurely shrink the tubing with the soldering heat. I would stagger the splices so they aren't directly adjacent, and have plenty of extra jacket stripped off to allow parking room for the shrink tube. Wrap the shrink tube in cold paper towels, and use a HOT and high capacity iron so you can get in and out fast. Which incidentally is how all solder joints should be made.

[Stingray5]

Thanks Craig! Stagger the splices great tip,Thanks