Hello:

Sorry for this silly question, but I searched for an answer on the forum and have not found it.

I'm about to place a large order with Blue Jeans cable, and need to purchase several interconnects, speaker wire, and sub interconnects.

What is the easiest, most accurate way to measure the required cable lengths? Do you try to measure with a tape measure (can be tougher when stringing along a rack or into cabinets), run a string along the route of the proposed cable and measure that, or just eyeball it?

This is obviously not a big deal with the speaker cables, as I'm terminating those myself, but the interconnects are premade, so I want to get them right and end up with a lot of excess or worse, come up short.

Thanks for your patience.

If you have a spare coax video cable, use that instead of a string. It's close enough to the bending properties of most of the audio cables.

I would measure liberally if I were you.

Yeah, better to have a bit more than you need than come up short. Extra foot or two (or even three if it's a long run) won't hurt.

I would measure liberally if I were you.

Totally agree. You don't want to put any stress on the cable.

From a "Dagwood Bumstead" comedy radio show(I think) of about 60 years ago:
Always buy cables to short, not to long.
Because if it's to short you can always splice another piece on. But if it's to long what are you going to do?

IMO, it's better to have too much than not enough.

IMO, it's better to have too much than not enough.

It was a 1948 radio comedy show.

Use string, factoring in generous bend radii. You can also add a couple of feet if it's a situation where a little longer doesn't matter.

I did the eyeball + 2 ft method for my HDMI cables and ended up with around 3 ft extra length.