Very short speaker cable length recommended?

Sean used to argue against the conventional wisdom of long ICs and short speaker cables, reeasoning that the "stronger" signal from the amp is better suited to a long run than is a line-level signal. Others disagreed, of course.

We tend to accept conventional wisdom (why wouldn't we), but it makes sense to revisit every now and then. See the threads on direct drive and idler wheel turntables.

Quaker State and Pennzoil recommend oil changes every 3,000 miles while my manual says 7,000 miles. Hmmm.

Which arguments do some experts have for stating that a longer speaker cable (8 feet and longer) is better than a shorter one? In digital interconnects 1.5 m seem to be the minimum length, due to signal relections within the cable, but with speaker cable we are dealing with very different (electrical) characteristics. What in the case of built-in amps in some (active) speakers? There is no speaker cable at all. Is this electrically bad? It's puzzling to me.

Chris

I once had a setup using CJ monoblocks, Wilson Witts, and 4 feet of Kimber 8TC that sounded very good. I thought shorter had to be better and I would save some money so I tried a 6 inch run of various wires including some 8TC. The resolution increased but it was bright and irritating. This was very repeatable and it was not subtle. The very short wires were horrible. I have no explanation and I agree it is puzzling, but that was my experience and the results were confirmed by several others.

I would say it depends on your amp. High feedback amps work better with short speaker cable runs. At least mine does. I went through a selection process using long and short cable runs - both cheapo 12 ga twisted strand copper and high quality cables. Ended up with 6 foot high quality cables sounding best. At least to my ears.