Whats wrong with short cables?

I did a few experiments backing my monos up to the speaker terminals and connecting 6 inch links as speaker cables. It became very hard to distinguish the differences between cables, where those differences had been very noticeable with 3 foot lengths. But these were still good cables being used. On the other hand, a link as bad as those horrid brass bridges used on bi-wire speakers is noticeably worse than using decent cable as a jumper.

Redkiwi: What is a "link" in this context?

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/audio/skineffect/page1.html

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/intro/electron.htm

A couple of good sites on cable theory.

Sean,

Are zobels necessary for Goertz even if your amps are equipped with zobels? I thought that having zobels on both the amps and the speaker terminals could be detrimental to the sound.

Thanks

The assumption that cable manufacturers promote longer speaker wire lengths to increase sales is an easy one to make.

If you use short speaker wire, you need long interconnects. Right? Has anyone researched the total cost difference between long IC with short speaker wire vs. short IC and long speaker wire across several makers' products?

I sampled pricing from Harmonic Technology and Audience just as a starting point. The pricing is only a bit higher with longer speaker wire.

A 3m pair of non-biwire Audience Au24 SW is $93 more than a 3m pair of Au24 IC (RCA). Not enough to support the profit motive theory.

In the case of HT, there is more material in their speaker wire than in their IC; so, manufacturing costs may be higher for SW (speaker wire) and thereby justify the marginally higher cost per meter.