Speaker wire guage/current draw ?

With this question you'll probably get more opinions than responses. The ultimate determining factor is: If it's illegal or immoral, don't try it.

Popular belief says thicker is better. More recently, some are saying thinner can be better. Like the 26 gauge that you mention.

When bi-wiring, some to many times the thicker gauge is lower for the bass and higher for the mids and highs. At other times the thickness is the same for bass and mids and highs.

But, as always, what really should matter more than anything is the quality of the materials and build of the product.

The Nordost Valhallas are very thin, even sheer. I have no idea what gauge they are but some say they are among the very best and most expensive cables made.

As for me, I'm using Harmonic Technology Pro 9 bi-wired cables. I believe they are 9 guage for the bass runs and perhaps 16 gauge for the uppers. This cable is bi-wired but I purchased it in mono wire format. Meaning it had single spades at both amp and speaker ends. Upon converting and terminating them for bi-wiring, I noticed a more airy presentation with better imaging and 3-d soundstaging.

-IMO

I run 16ga wire here from a 400w/130amp of current amplifier with no problems whatsoever to 89db efficient speakers.....Unless you are listening to test tones at levels that will melt your speakers 16ga is plenty for anything.....

The thinner you go, the more resistance you face, and the more resistance you face, the more likely you are to suffer sonically (typically from rolled-off highs). Of course, that's only suffering if you don't want rolled-off highs. Certainly 10 AWG is very conservative for a 10-foot run. You could go a fair bit thinner with no ill effects. 26 AWG strikes me as pushing it.