Least Losses: Long speaker cable vs. Long Interconnect?

Based on recent experience I'm convinced that something almost no one seems to address, except perhaps indirectly through mention of specific cable types, is the question of wire gauge. For a more detailed description of my experience, you can check my response in this section under "any experience using better cables?", but essentially I have had very favorable results in a bi-wire configuration using 30' runs of 10 gauge appliance wire purchased at Home Depot for 14 cents/ft., total cost less than $17. On the other hand, as I indicated in that other message, I am convinced that interconnects generally play a much larger role in these matters than does speaker cable. But-and this is perhaps a big BUT-all such discussions must be seen in the overall context of interactions among the various items in the system.

In contrast to much of what appears above, I would like to point out a few things:
1: Music is an AC waveform and is mostly made up of voltage (read amplitude) varriations for volume, and frequency varriations for the obvious.
2: interconnects carry the low voltage ( 0.25mV ~ 2.5V nominal) stuff between components.
3: Speaker cables carry the high voltage (2.0 ~ 40+? how loud do you go @ what power?) stuff.
If you loose X% per meter, the losses will be more noticable in the interconnect than in the speaker wire.
I have yet to see speaker wire act as an antenna, and I live under one of the largest broadcasting towers in the West - Twin Peaks!. [ I did have some problems in my phono section, but some better wire inside the pre-amp and some ferrite made it go away.]
Happy listening

I have tried this kind of comparison with two very good cable types, NBS Monitor 0 and Cardas Golden Reference, and both times I found that there was a noticeable improvement when I used shorter speaker cables and a longer preamp-power amp interconnect instead of a shorter interconnect and longer speaker cables. (The range of lengths ran 1 vs 3 meters on the interconnects, and 4 vs. 10 feet on the speaker cables.) This remained true when I switched preamps, power amps and speakers.

Heres some more food for thought -- I agree with the voltage references in 6bq5's post, BUT part of the analysis could lead one to perceive the wrong solution... Termination at line level is typically 10K-200K ohms; At the speaker, the termination is typically .5 to 20 ohms, depending on the frequency and mostly the speaker. Therefore one could conclude that the resistance of cable created in long lengths has more effect on the lower resistance termination, due to the increase in current in the network. When current is limited by resistance in cable, amplitude will also be limited. In most cases, reducing dynamics and resolution. Personal experience and theoretically speaking tells me that short cable lengths are more important for speakers rather than interconnects.
Balanced vs. SE -- your mileage will vary due to all of the items listed in the previous posts...

Ck your amps specs. If your amp only needs 1 volt or close to reach rated output you will be just fine with a long IC. Use a good ic with a shield. Don't use MIT. MIT is garbage in my opinion in my experience. Kimber makes good cable. Use the best Kimber you can afford. You should be just fine with the longer IC. I use a 20ft ic although its Bal which is better for longer runs. There is other cable besides Kimber that is good. Kimber is a proven cable and a safe choice. MIT chokes the sound.