Are long speaker cables viable?

[andylikesapples]

Hi there,

I apologise in advance for treading on much-travelled ground... I did read about the dangers of destroying OTs and signal loss and the beast whose name is 666 with 10 horns and seven seals. But I'm just trying to establish whether there's a workable solution.

We're trying to cut down stage noise (we all play with E5 in-ear monitors) and we've ousted all guitar cabs from the stage. Which isn't my ideal situation, but we do what we have to.

Up until I read the heinous crime we were committing on this spiritually enlightening forum, we've run the heads to the cabs through instrument cables (probably about 40 meters or so). This was before I realised the terrible plight of our OTs.

Is there any way that you can run long speaker cables without detrimental effects on amps or anything? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Andy

[rockon1]

Sure-just use a heavy gauge speaker cables. 40 meters is about 120 feet? If your using that long of a run I'd probably figure you need at least 12 gauge(maybe 10) wire to minimize power loss. The bigger the better within reason. Bob

[uncledevo]

You face a few problems with long speaker cable runs: signal attenuation, increased load on OTs, and interference. In addition to heavier gauage cables, you also need cables that have proper sheilding. I don't know what your budget is like, but I ran into a vendor at the amp show called Solid Cables that had speaker cables that could easily do a long run without any of these problems, but be forwarned, his stuff is pricey. Excellent but pricey. Mark at Lava cables may also have a solution for you (probably less expensive but still not low budget) and if money is an issue you can probably get speaker cables from coreoneproduct.com but I would talk with them to make sure their stuff can handle that long a run. One of their staff members (sorry, can't remember his name) really understands all of the issues. If they can't handle it, try the others.

[VanR]

Why not just buy some isolation cabs?

[Adwex]

Like others have said.....long speaker cable runs are no problem, but the longer the run, the heavier gauge cable you need, to keep the impedance down. ....and speaker cable does NOT need to be shielded. Ordinary lamp cord makes great speaker cable.

[mike80]

....and speaker cable does NOT need to be shielded. Ordinary lamp cord makes great speaker cable.


True. Speaker cable is just a two conductor cable. Just make sure to get a big enough gauge to carry the load. With longer runs, you run into voltage drop, which turns into heat, loss of signal, etc.

12 guage cable should be plenty big enough to run for a couple hundred feet.

[jay42]

Okay, here's an extra notion. A bad thing can happen with the long cable. Somebody drops an edge down on your cable and either the connection is shorted or opened. Assuming tube amps (you said 'OT'), a short isn't the worst thing, but an open is. I suggest adding a 250 to 500 ohm, 5 to 10W resistor (cement or wire wound types are perfect) across the amp output jack(s), so that there will always be something there.

I had yanked cord boo-boo take out my power-mixer output transistors when it shorted...sigh. Solid state stuff is either short circuit protected or not, and isn't easily modded.

[andylikesapples]

Many thanks for all the wisdom guys! Great help.