Best speaker cables

You won't be able to listen to 2' cables before buying, but you could listen to 8' pairs, decide which particular cable you enjoy the most, and then order a 2' pair of that particular brand. I'd put Cardas, JPS, and Coincident on your list.

re: cable lengths. I heard that the optimum length, sound wise, is 128cm -- or multiples of same... anyone on to this?

Gregm, the optimum length for a speaker cable is "as short as you can make it." The shorter the speaker cable, the less shunt capacitance, less series inductance, and most of all, less series resistance.