Cable questions

Hi,

First, I've read back quite a few discussions of long speaker cables vs. long interconnects. My question is a bit different, in that I don't have monoblocks, which is the focus of most of those discussions.

My problem is that for family-acceptability reasons, my stereo preamp must be some distance from my speakers. I could position the stereo power amp either with the preamp (using a 3-6' interconnect) or close to the speakers (under the floor, actually). With short interconnects, my speaker runs would be about 25-30'. With long (about 20')interconnects, my speaker runs would be about 10'.

My preamp is a Classe CP-35, and the amp is a CA-200. These units do have balanced output and input if that helps.

Second, what sort of cables would you recommend? Cost is an issue, I would like to spend a few hundred dollars on cabling (I realize that's low, but I've made some jumps to step up to this gear and need to slow down for now). I currently use a 3' Radio Shack Gold interconnect and 10 foot of 12guage homemade RS speaker cable. Speakers are Celestion S-300 floorstanders.

Finally, any information out there on homemade interconnects? Is this hard to do, and are the results reasonable?

Thanks for any advice!

- Eric