long speaker cable run or long balanced IC ??

This subject has been discussed quite a lot on Agon. Here are some threads to read through:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?fcabl&1269460735&read&keyw&zzcable=run
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?fcabl&1169176482&read&keyw&zzcable=run
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?fcabl&1149283017&read&keyw&zzcable=run

Hope this helps

The usual answer is long interconnects and short speaker cables.
A few claim the reverse works better for them.
But the majority go for long interconnects and short speaker cables.
And various pair lengths are fine for interconnects.
If your question ws about speaker cable lengths? Then the opinion is divided between OK for different lengths of speaker cables, OR, better to be equal length speaker cables. I personally try to use equal lengths, but if the difference in length was within 50% or so... I would not worry. Thus if one is 5 ft and the other is 10 ft long I would not worry. If one is 2 ft long and the other is 20 ft long... I would not want to do that.
I have though a lot (myself) about moving the amp to the side of one speaker, instead of as now where it is between them. I do have equal length wires now so it sits in the middle. But if I was to do it again I might go for the side position and have somewhat unequal speaker wires....
Even though one would only NEED to be 2 ft vs 10 ft or so.. I would buy a longer short side to get them to be more alike... so i would buy 5 ft for the short side even if I did not need it.

Long interconnect and short speaker cable.

If there were just one kind of amp, there would be only one answer, but tube amps and SS amps have completely different output characteristics. Generally speaking:
Tube amps are more comfortable with short speaker cables.
Solid state amps don't mind long speaker cables as long as those cables are not overly capacitive.
Yes, of course there are exceptions, but these guidelines work with a high percentage of the amplifiers out there.