The 3 audio cables plugged into my sound card (front channel, rear channel, and center/subwoofer channels) travel about a foot and a half away to the subwoofer that is part of my 5.1 speaker system. This is all under my desk. Most of the wires going from the subwoofer to the satellites are hidden behind and under the desk.
I'm not a headset guy, wired or wireless. I'm a speaker guy. I don't like wearing headphones/headsets, especially for extended periods of time. I used to use a headset in the past sometimes, especially the few rare times I met up with friends online to do co-op stuff, or when I was in college and some of my classes met up online, but I sit right next to my PC, so having a wired headset was no worse than having a wired keyboard or mouse or controller. Didn't bother me at all. I'd simply reach down under my desk and plug the headset in, and when I was done I would reach down and disconnect it. No biggie.
I do have a friend that mainly uses a wireless headset, and he likes being able to step away from his PC and move throughout his house while still talking to his friends online or listening to music through the headset. I admit that a headset is handy if other people live in your house and you are gaming or watching a movie in the middle of the night and you don't want to wake anyone else up. But in situations like that I just turn the volume on my speakers down. And yeah if I was doing job stuff on my PC and had to talk to co-workers online and be in video meetings then I would use a headset then too.