Cable length difference - phase issues?

[flextone]

Hi,

Simple question. Should both of the cables that run from my interface to the monitors match in length? Will different cables (length, brand) possibly cause phase issues?

Thanks.

 

[Massive Master]

It would certainly be nice to be using cables of similar length. But unless one is 10 feet and the other is several hundred miles, you aren't going to get much phase shift.

 

[CIRO]

A very different frequency response L/R is common when monitors are positioned far from the center of a wall, like yours.

Ciro

 

[mattr]

As Massive said, you would need horrendously different cables before it would make even a slight difference!

Lets say that the electric current (energy to be precise... the current flows very slowly) flows at very approximately 2/3rds the speed of light: ~2x10^8 m/s. This is probably wrong as there are so many contradictory views about how fast electricity actually effectively travels, but this seems to be a value for a shielded copper wire that pops up quite a lot.

If you had a 10m difference in the length of one cable, this would result in the signal reaching one monitor around 50 nanoseconds before the other. This translates in air to an offset of roughly 17 micrometers... not enough to throw even very high frequencies out of phase. The effect is negligible to say the very least

Moving your head just a millimeter has an effect many orders of magnitude greater!


That is, assuming that your cables are all wired with the same polarity. Might be something to check if you're having problems

 

[flextone]

Great thanks!