Which is better longer xlr or speaker cable

Guys - thnx for clarifying my point - no one here is recommending unobtanium XLR cables - I am not hearing you have to have ___ or you will die.

Rodman - your comment puzzles me a bit. Do you think that the microphone line from the lead singer or the featured soloist does not carry complex musical information? Aren't those the very things that we are looking to hear as they come out of blackness to enter the room surrounded by air precisely placed blah blah blah?

Music reproduction is a long and complex chain. But it all starts with a quality input signal (source). If its good enough to carry an artist to the mixing console its probably good enough to carry the mix to the speakers...

Mogami is good.

What you are sending to the amps is a signal composed of, not just one voice(vocal or instrument), but a compilation of everything and everyone performing, plus the imaging and ambient info contained on the recording, etc. A bit more complex than what is fed through one pro mic/instrument cable to the snake and console to be mixed. Do what you like. I've only been in the live music and home audio game for over 30 years. What do I know?

I just went through this scenario myself after obtaining a set of VAC monoblocks. I opted for the shorter speaker cables.

The Mogami suggestion is a good one. You could also look into the Oyaide PA-1. I picked up a set of each and both are nice cables that won't break the bank.

David Wilson has long runs of speaker cables in his (residential) listening room. Audio Research has long runs of speaker cable (> 40 feet*) in their listening room. Imagine: 40 feet length of the Siltech G6 speaker cable! Or Purist Audio Dominus. Wow!
* The message is: just use runs of good copper speaker cable, not the exotic ones.

Chris

Well, I guess that I'm in the minority . . . my system's set up the opposite way. But both are equally valid in a purely technical sense, it all comes down to pragmatics.

Some advantages for longer interconnects:
-Rack of gear is smaller and less obtrusive, because the amp(s) are somewhere else
-Monoblocks look cool next each speaker
-Some speaker cables, with some systems, sound better in shorter lengths
-Long interconnects seem to be cheaper (in many manufacturers' comparable models) than long speaker cables.

Some advantages for longer speaker cables:
-Amplifiers sitting by the speakers clutters up and complicates speaker placement, and may compromise speaker placement options
-Makes a non-dedicated listening room look much less like a "man-cave"
-Some speaker cables, with some systems, can sound better in longer lengths.
-There is frequently less chance for hum and RFI interference; the preamp-level interconnect is much more suceptable than the speaker cable, and is shorter.
-You don't have an outlet by your speakers for the amp, (or) you don't have the amplifier AC running right next to your preamp signal for a long run, (or) you don't have to worry about two outlets being on the same circuit, same ground potential, etc. etc. for best performance.

For me, the decision was based on the fact that when I moved, and suddenly needed long cables . . . I liked my interconnects, which were short. But I wasn't really happy with my speaker cables, which were also short. So I kept the cables I liked, and replaced the ones I didn't . . .