Given the distance of typical home setup speaker cable, shorter distance is only theoretically beneficial, given the lower resistance. There is no practical difference (i.e. one cannot hear a difference) between a 25 foot cable and the same cable only 5 feet. Same goes for different length of the same cable. Only when extremely large footage - like hundreds - is considered does length and difference in length matter.
In my view keeping the cables "longer" as opposed to "shorter" is preferable because besides the increased flexibility to move or re-position equipment, I do not terminate the end (i.e. attach bare wire to binding post) and every now and again I like to re-do the ends, albeit each iteration decreased the length of the cable.
In my view keeping the cables "longer" as opposed to "shorter" is preferable because besides the increased flexibility to move or re-position equipment, I do not terminate the end (i.e. attach bare wire to binding post) and every now and again I like to re-do the ends, albeit each iteration decreased the length of the cable.