HT Speaker wire in conduit

[BurkettC]

I have a question about speaker wires running through conduit. Several years back when I built my pseudo home theater, I installed EMT conduit in the walls at each speaker location so that I could change the speaker wires at a later date. When I did this, I had this little birdy in my head that said "speaker wires running through conduit might adversely affect the sound." I did it anyway.

Is there any appreciable affect of long runs through a metal tube? I wish I had just run plastic tubing for the conduit, but oh well. I suppose I could just do an A/B test on my own by laying wires on the floor to see if I can hear the difference... I will do this.... but just wondering if there is a consensus on this already.

Thanks!

- Colby

[Speedskater]

With a modern well designed amplifier there should not be any difference. But some much older designs and some minimum parts count amplifiers could have problems.

[BurkettC]

That's reassuring! I upgraded from a Yamaha HTR-5790 to a Denon AVR-5803 (got an insane deal on it) about a year ago, so I think both of them qualify as 'modern.'

Thanks for the response Speedskater!

[pheonix358]

Is the conduit earthed, if not try it. It may help with long runs. Stops the long speaker leads from acting like antennae.

Terry

[Glowbug]

But some much older designs and some minimum parts count amplifiers could have problems.

I'm just curious as to what would be affected that would make minimalistic amps have issues?

[Speedskater]

Originally Posted by Glowbug

I'm just curious as to what would be affected that would make minimalistic amps have issues?

Minimalistic amp designer omit the parts that keep the amp functioning in difficult circumstances. They seldom test their designs in anything but best case conditions. They often chose parts that are not good engineering decisions.

[Glowbug]

I meant more along the lines of what would cause problems with the amplifiers, assuming the conduit wasn't overstuffed...

[Speedskater]

It's an amplifier design problem. They removed (or used incorrect) parts that made the amplifier stable under a variety of load conditions.

[dangus]

Capacitance?

For peace of mind, connect a C-meter between the conduit and speaker cable. Calculate the impedance at audio frequencies, then stop worrying.