Length- Speaker wire/interconnect ?s

Long interconnects with short speaker wire is DEFINITELY the way to go. NO question about it. Of course, using a passive preamp, or running a source component straight into an amp throws a monkey wrench into this whole thing, and is NOT recommended. In those cases, the long speaker wire is the way to go.

Long interconnect is the way to go. The reason many interconnect are shielded and can block out any RF and noise where speaker cable may not.

I'm not surprised by the previous two responses, as this is pretty general knowledge. All I can add is that I'm having no trouble at all with 9' interconnects--not really long but not really short either--used with a passive preamp. Do you have monoblock power amps? That's the only way to have very short speaker cables, and is worth thinking about. I made that change recently, and will never look back. It brought me a lot closer to the music.