Does cable length for headphones degrades sound quality?
Jan 22, 2013 at 1:24 PM Post #2 of 7
The length of the cable does not play a huge roll in sound quality because the signal is AC at the headphone out of an amp stage.  Being AC there is little loss along the length of the cable.  If the current was DC that would be an entirely different beast altogether.  To the extreme long cables can cause issue due to signal loss, reflections, static, feedback, magnetic resonance, etc.  If you do long runs of cable most people in the audio world use XLR cables due to better shielding, grounding and higher output power.
 
Jan 22, 2013 at 3:06 PM Post #4 of 7
Quote:
The length of the cable does not play a huge roll in sound quality because the signal is AC at the headphone out of an amp stage.  Being AC there is little loss along the length of the cable.  If the current was DC that would be an entirely different beast altogether.

 
Huh?
 
Resistance is the same whether AC or DC. And with AC, now you've got inductance and capacitance as well (what ultimately makes a cable a low pass filter).
 
se
 
Jan 22, 2013 at 3:16 PM Post #5 of 7
I guess I should have specified that it does not induce a large voltage drop.  As Steve mentions it is all about impedance, noise, and termination.  I mainly wanted to get a quick note in because I figured squal was after a quick answer regarding a few feet of cable.
 
Jan 22, 2013 at 4:21 PM Post #7 of 7
In multiconductor cable I would anticipate higher power loss due to the cables impedance than DC due to resistance alone.
 
At any rate, a decent cable shouldn't matter under 10', if you want a shorter cable it would be purely a convenience thing.
 

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