So I played around with some "hand-built" speaker wire. The first set, which I've been using for quite a while, are four 14 gauge PTFE silver plated copper wire braided in 25 foot lengths.
The second set are 16 g. solid core PTFE wire, not twisted in 12 foot lengths.
With the solid copper wires, the highs are more forward and less veiled, there seems to be deeper bass coming from the speakers too. In comparing both wires at the same time, I did have to listen up close to each speaker to hear the difference better.
A couple of thoughts Char. Silver coated copper wire will sound brighter on the highs vs all copper for the same set of conditions; but as you pointed out, the parallel copper wires actually had more highs by comparison. More parallel wires will sound even brighter. But you don't need such large gauges, depending upon how many you use in parallel.
(Another consideration is that silver coated copper will sound non-linear as the frequency rises, like zinging on systems I have checked. The all copper will be more linear as the frequency increases from my experiences.)
I experimented with multiple 18 gauge wires and found that 8 parallel wires did not sound quite right in my system. 10 sounded optimum in my system while 12 did not. All three examples were approximately 9 total gauge if memory serves me correctly. I got my 2 conductor door bell (solid) wire, 18 gauge, from my local ACE hardware. I used some dual banana male plugs from Parts Express, part no. 090-467 or 090-471. This makes it easy to compare more or fewer wires by simply plugging and unplugging bananas.
Each system will vary, so it is helpful to experiment with the number of a parallel wires to obtain optimum sound from your personal system Char. But you could do that any time. Just take your time and listen to the overall sound, and find what you like best.
cheers and hope all goes well.
steve
