How long can audio cables be before the signal quality suffers?
This is one of those ‘How long is a piece of string?’ questions because the answer depends on both the cable type and on the impedance of the circuitry at either end. As a very general rule, high-impedance mics or feeds from high-impedance instrument pickups shouldn’t be longer than around four or five metres, as the cable capacitance can cause the high frequencies to be attenuated, but low-impedance balanced mic cables can be tens or even hundreds of metres long if the sending and receiving devices are designed properly and the source impedance is very low. With semi-pro equipment, keeping balanced mic or line cables down to 10 or 20 metres maximum would be sensible, though it’s still best to keep all cable runs as short as you can.
