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Please advice me the typical and minimum length of cables when splitting tops and subs for DJ and for Live Band use. I usually split tops but not subs but it is nice to know. Thanks

philrev wrote:Please advice me the typical and minimum length of cables when splitting tops and subs for DJ and for Live Band use. I usually split tops but not subs but it is nice to know. Thanks

Not sure just what you mean......

Are you talking about daisy-chaining two tops or two subs together?

I am not daisy chaining...as of now i have only 2tops and 4 subs vplated. in the future maybe.. I plan to buy a new cable to replace my temporary short and and limited cable. I forgot the minimum separation of speaker when splitting top and sub into left right stereo. I dont know what is the common lenght of cable for dj and for live band? thanks..sorry i edited this statement several times.

philrev wrote:I am not daisy chaining...as of now i have only 2tops. in the future maybe..

Still don't understand what the question is.....

What do you mean by minimum cable length?

Minimum cable lenght from speaker to amp to avoid issues of cancellation on certain frequency between left and right speaker.
.

Even if your system response goes all the way to 20 kHz, you should be okay with anything under five kilometers......

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_electricity

David Raehn wrote:Even if your system response goes all the way to 20 kHz, you should be okay with anything under five kilometers......

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_electricity

Spot on accurate though.

Ideal lenght of cable will be short as possible to minimize loss of signal and cost, but there are times you need more on other venues. In real world what is the most common length of cable use here.

Around here operators usually have 25', 50', and for the rare outdoor occasion 100' lengths in their inventory.

To answer you properly, please include the sub model you are talking about.

The reason we and you need to know is that the distance of separation required is frequency dependant.

For example:
T39's require a separation distance of 56 feet if you're splitting a stack, in order to avoid cancellations up to 40Hz.
Keeping cable lengths as short as possible, in that situation, would see you ideally putting the sub amp midway between each separated side, giving you cable runs of just over 25 feet. That minimises loss to the cabs (though that loss may only be 1dB).
Signal cable has much less loss than speaker cable, so it's best to have long signal leads than long speaker leads.

As far as tops go, the problem is greatly reduced, because the frequencies are above say 100Hz...

edit:
As far as speaker cable gauge goes, the longer the cable, the lower the gauge it should be.
25 foot long 12G cables should be fine.
You might want to think about 10G cables for anything longer than that...

The general rule of thumb for point sources of sound is to keep the cabinets closer than 1/4 wavelength (use the high end frequency), or further than 2 wavelengths (use the low end frequency).

For subs, the separation should be 56ft (@40Hz).
For tops, the separation should be 22ft (@100Hz).

I use the shortest cable that will get to the speaker. Thus, I have everything from 7 footers to 50 footers......speakers placement is determined as described above.

This may be of help....
http://www.electrovoice.com/cableloss.php

J_Dunavin wrote:This may be of help....
http://www.electrovoice.com/cableloss.php

It would be if it actually told you what the result of a given insertion loss would be, but it doesn't. This does:
http://www.bcae1.com/images/swfs/speake ... istant.swf

Do many of you guys run 10ga or more on runs > 25 feet? Where could one find ready made cables this size?