[Number7+2=9]

I read somewhere that it's best to keep speaker cable as short as possible & that it does'nt matter how long the interconnects are. Is there any validity to this statement? Thanks in advance, Michael

[Marbles]

The first part is correct, the second part should be: It's best to keep the interconnect cables as short as possible too....

I should also add that Mapleshade did some studies that showed that THEIR speaker cables sounded better at 8' than at shorter lengths.

[R_burke]

If you need long ICs and your equipment supports it, use XLR balanced ICs

[Jay S]

The argument I have heard is that IC should be as short as possible as they transmit a low voltage signal that would therefore be more susceptible to noise.  Speaker cables can be longer since they transmit a much stronger signal so the impact of noise will be less.  

By the way, check whether your equipment has truly balanced -- just because they have a balanced connector in the back doesn't mean the circuitry is balanced.

[PhilNYC]

I've heard a technical explanation for keeping IC's short and speaker cables long, but almost all the anecdotal evidence I have heard (and experienced myself) has been the other way.  In my personal experience, I've never had to deal with either IC or speaker cable longer than 5m, and the tech explanation was dealing with cable lengths of greater than 26ft.

Currently, I run 2m ICs and 2.5m speaker cables.  This configuration was significantly better than 1m ICs and 5m speaker cables that I had been running before...

[Number9]

.....

[JoshK]

I've never tested this out myself.  I've always had short IC's and relatively short speaker cables.  At the moment I have a 2.5M pair of IC's and 8' speaker cables and it works really well, but I couldn't tell you if one way works better than the other.  I too have heard to keep the IC's short and the speaker cables the longest cables and it makes sense from an intellectual perspective but I know many who disagree.