Long Cables w/Short Speaker Cable or Vice Versa?

(B) Short Interconnects with a Long Speaker Cable run? I would consider this option.

My experience is that short speaker wires work better, but YMMV.

I tried both ways with my equipment and strongly preferred having long interconnects and short speaker cables. This was not a casual decision, since I preferred having equipment out of the way, versus having monoblocks on amp stands next to the speakers. But other variables could have contributed to my preference. For instance, the amp stands, versus the cabinet the amps were in when using long speaker wires.

In desperation, I also tried different brands/types of wire (thanks to loaners from The Cable Company). I found no combination of interconnect/speaker wire with short interconnects that was better than having good long interconnect.

This held up with two different amps; one stereo amp -- an innersound ESL300 and two monoblock tube amps 120wpc KT-88 McShane-mod Citation-II amps. I conducted this testing over a three month period. As I said, I was disposed to prefer having long speaker wires, but it was not to be.

I even tried with two types of speakers: Vandersteen 3a speakers and Magneplanar 1.6qr. I could find no instance where the longer speaker wires were better given the same brand/type of wire.

I'm sure you'll find some people with other experience, but I spent a lot of time getting to this answer, so i thought it might be helpful to you.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to respond. From the research I have gathered, it is my understanding that speaker cables carry a much larger signal than interconnects and are more prone to distortions.

The challenge I think that I may face is where to find 15' long interconnects! Ouch!

shortest possible interconnects, just because they send lower level signals which can be more prone to interference and such.Depending on the speaker load if its an easy one to drive then most times longer cable is best.

More often than not, speaker cables are more expensive than interconnects. On the other hand, if you are considering long interconnects, your preamp needs to have sufficient gain to handle the long IC's. I've tried both approaches and I favor short IC's and longer speaker cables as long as the speaker cables have low impedance and low capacitance.