[Jalo]

I seem to remember reading somewhere on this forum that there is an ideal length for headphone cable to produce the best SQ. I seem to remember it is like 7, 8, or 10 foot. Can someone help my memory? It seems to have something to do with the wave length and such? If it is a figment of my imagination please tell me also

 

[teren41]

What. To my knowledge, no, the shorter the better as there's less deterioration of the signal. For most normal cable lengths, there shouldn't be an audible difference. I guess if you extended a headphone cable 500 feet you might get some serious signal deterioration but other than that, I think cable lengths should be decided based on your listening position with respect to the output jack... in other words, by physical factors and not SQ.

 

[JaZZ]

I don't know if there's a theoretically ideal length, as with digital connections, due to line reflections. But in my experience it depends on the cable. The Sennheiser HD 600/650 stock cables have sonically benefitted from halving the length. The DT 880 sounded clearly smoother/duller and slightly less detailed (although not unappealing) with its extension cord. On the other hand I didn't notice much difference between 1.25 and 2.5 m with Zu Mobius and Silver Dragon cables.
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