long cable run signal delays?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kasey
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Kasey

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I am wanting to record a piano - the problem is the piano is upstairs, my studio is downstairs, and i can't move either. So this finally gave me a reason to use my incredibly long (80 feet i think) stage snake. I also need to run headphones up there. Are there issues with delay of signal when you're running cables that long? If there is, is there a difference between the delay of balanced and unbalanced cables? Obviously I'm hoping that its no issue, but i dont know, and i was hoping someone here might.
 
I run 50 and 100 foot snakes in my studio with no issue whatsoever.
 
There is a slight delay, but you can't hear it. Remember that the electrical signal is running through the cable at the speed of light. Isn't that something like 187,000 miles per second? So you can do the math, but 80 feet of cable doesn't amount to much of a delay.
 
It takes miles of cable to produce any amount of delay that is going to be relevent to sound.

80 feet of mic level running down balanced XLR is no problem but that's kind of a long way to drive headphones. You may want to send line level up there to a headphone amp.
 
You will never hear the delay. In 80 feet of cable, the delay will be on the order of a few nanoseconds (billionths of a second).
 
SonicAlbert said:
There is a slight delay, but you can't hear it. Remember that the electrical signal is running through the cable at the speed of light. Isn't that something like 187,000 miles per second? So you can do the math, but 80 feet of cable doesn't amount to much of a delay.
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Almost correct. The speed of light in a vaccum is 186,282 ft per second. The speed of an electrical signal in a wire is slightly less than that (due to resistance in the wire), but it is still on the same order of magnitude as the speed of light.
 
Sound through a cable travels MUCH faster than sound through the air.... how wierd is that??? :D :D :D :D :D
 
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