Bought some 14/2 “speaker wire” from Home Depot

@zavato - It's not only about the metal in a wire...

I started with a "nice looking" wire with clear insulation. Had it in the system for about 4 years, until one day, I wanted to change the length of the wire.

First thing I noticed - the previously bright copper was now very dull (almost black). When I striped the insulation there was a slimy deposit on the wire - the insulation was degrading

At that point I looked for a better wire and switched to Van den Hul speaker wire
- WOW! - the performance was so much better
- I upgraded to the next gauge size up to achieve better bass performance

Fast forward 20 years later - I go into my old cable box and took out a piece of the first Van den Hul wire for another system - when I strip the insulation - no slimy deposit and the wire was still as bright as the day I bought it 

So that very affordable wire may not be doing your system any favours over the long haul

And that is just the tip of the "cable iceberg'
- different types of metal
- different type of insulation
- different cable geometries
- etc...

Regards - Steve

Rx8man

you do realize that the most important part of every post I’ve ever made is the photo of Ms. Boyd. 
I once changed the photo to something else and responses to my posts after that essentially ignored my posts and wondered why I switched pictures. 
Realizing the errors of my ways Ms. Boyd returned. 

@williewonka 

the Uber cheap 14/2 was a for sh*ts and giggles. 
My Analysis Plus cables are much longer than I currently need so I’m just fooling around with wire now. Fwiw- I do think the oval 9’s are very good. 
The original oval 9’s (mine are a later revision) do have a reputation to discolor 

@tomic601 

she didn’t have much to say 

Just fooling around. Good to know. Because so far this was looking like you're one of these guys who really can't hear any difference. Although personally I doubt I'm strong enough to endure even a minute of listening to my system through lamp cord.  

Actually the best thing about this thread is you put "speaker wire" in scare quotes. What you have is not speaker wire. Its hook up wire. Lamp cord. Speaker wire, someone at least tried even a little bit to make it sound less crappy than lamp cord. Can't say good. Just less crappy.  

When I say takes me back to the 80's, I mean literally. It was like 1989 when I started seeing things about speaker wire being about more than gauge. Because up until then the audio world was dominated by the evil idiot Julian Hirsch. A name I suspect many here do not even know, yet his technical writing in the now thankfully defunct Stereo Review influenced countless audiophiles, convincing them wire is wire and all you need is enough of it (gauge) and nothing more can ever be better. 

The vast majority of people, nevermind audiophiles just people, are monkey see monkey do. So this totally false notion goes on and on living a life of its own. To this very day there's many still duped into it, and you see them here every single day. So when some guy comes along saying he bought lamp cord and its just as good as his whatever, no its not, and its not your system.  

Anyway like I said its 1989 and some guy is saying two runs of lamp cord (shotgun) is better than one. Now this sounds silly but if you have enough lamp cord laying around its cheap and easy to try it and find out for yourself. Which I did. And heard the difference. And the rest is history. 

So that is my suggestion. Take your crappy roll of lamp cord, reel off another length of it and hook it up. It won't be much better. Hardly at all in fact. But it will be better. Which is perfect. Because what we really need to do right now more than anything else is restore your status as a guy who can actually hear stuff. Which so far is still very much in doubt. So please do try it and let us know.