That's funny, not having read this thread until today; I ran down to Home depot just this Monday to get 14/2 solid core copper wire, and some cheapo metal spades. I stripped the PVC covering, removed the ground wire, crimped the black/white wire with the cheap spades and connected to my SS amp, MF pre-amp, and my Proac. Crank the system up without even burning in the wires, and WOW! was my first reaction. I can clearly hear the difference, and what a difference. It sure beats the heck out of my other name brand cables I have. (Note that + and - are a single wire ran separately.) I really couldn't believe my ear, why the heck did I ever paid so much for other cables? BTW, it cost me $12.00 for 25 ft. The solid core is "Anti-cable"'s specialty, actually, they're pretty cheap for a 12 gauge speaker wire if you are not the DIY type.
Anyway, I was planning to make my own speaker wire using 20 gauge solid silver coated copper wires (Teflon coated). Ill be adopting a variation of simplicity rules (Anti-Cable) as well as going for the thin braided wire. My target is 14 gauge to + and -, using 20 gauge, I have 16 wire to braid, 8 to + and 8 to (Same number of conductors as Kimber 8TC). In fact, as I was reading this thread, my wires came in today. So Ill start braiding tonight.
Cost per foot? I order 200 feet of yellow, and 200 feet of black, about $110 plus shipping. Divide that by two 12 speaker cables for a total of 24 foot and you get $4.16 per speaker wire foot un-terminated. (With some leftovers to make jumper wires 8^) )
Will let you guys know how it goes and how it sounds!