I have a situation where I will have about 10ft of extra balanced XLR
cable left over on my right speaker. I need this extra length to
ensure both speakers have the same length of cable.

The question is - what is the best way to wind or store the cable?

In a previous post someone stated NOT to coil it, as this can create a
low frequency cutoff.

The question then, is how do you recommend I wind it? I could run it
half way to the left speaker and back, but that will be rather annoying
and I would have to make a rather quick 180 degree turn with the cable
- I would prefer some sort of winding technique.

Thanks!
Lucas

wrote:

I have a situation where I will have about 10ft of extra balanced XLR
cable left over on my right speaker. I need this extra length to
ensure both speakers have the same length of cable.

The question is - what is the best way to wind or store the cable?

The real questions a

1) What do you mean by balanced XLR cable? XLR is a connector, not a cable.

2) What does balanced have to do with speaker wire? Are you running in
bridged mode?

3) Why do you feel it is important to have exactly the same length wire
for your speaker wires?

In a previous post someone stated NOT to coil it, as this can create a
low frequency cutoff.

No. A coil *might* cause high frequency cutoff, but not low frequency
cutoff. A six inch diameter loop with a four or five coils will not
cause enough series inductance to be audible.

The question then, is how do you recommend I wind it?

It's speaker wire. Don't get worked up about it. Just make sure it
doesnt come near anything sharp or cause a tripping hazard or some other
obvious mechanical problem. If you want to be really anal, coil it in a
figure 8, but it really doesn't matter. Neatly coiled cables look nicer
than a rats nest of cables and are easier to deal with when tracing
problems or modifying your system, but electrically they're equivalent.

//Walt

1) Well its balanced line cable running from my computer to active
monitors, so the wire is only line level. I guess the XLR connector
aspect wasn't important

2) It's running to a speaker, but I guess it's not proper speaker wire
as it's just line level.

3) I've read that if you don't have the same length line running to
each speaker you can have different impedance on each speaker, causing
issues. I imagine this is mainly when you are running an amped signal
to the speakers. Nonetheless I figure a difference in cable length
could cause the signals to be slightly out of phase. Now with 10ft of
cable this probably won't do much, so chances are I am being a little
too anal - It's not like my listening environment is anywhere near
ideal anyway.

I'll go for the figure 8!

Thank you,

Lucas

Do not coil. A coil is a pickup/radiator.
Figure 8 is OK.