FWIW, as I recall the speaker cable types than can typically cause osscillations in an amp are those which have widely spaced positive and negative wires. I suggest that you take a few moments and do some research on this issue in Google - there are a lot of articles on this subject, which discuss the issues involved and which may have some application to your system. Other that a little time you've nothing to lose, and might gain a better appreciation for the terms 'inductance', 'resistence', and 'capacitance' and how they interface.
Re your question about 'what should I hear', the answer is nothing at all. Whether cheap 12ga cord sounds good to you or not what it will not introduce is the problems you have described. For test purposes, and actually some fairly good sound, I would recommend some 11 ga Canare Star 4S11. I use it regularily and I consider it a great bargin in non-exotic copper cable and I have used it regularily.
Hope that helps a bit.
Re your question about 'what should I hear', the answer is nothing at all. Whether cheap 12ga cord sounds good to you or not what it will not introduce is the problems you have described. For test purposes, and actually some fairly good sound, I would recommend some 11 ga Canare Star 4S11. I use it regularily and I consider it a great bargin in non-exotic copper cable and I have used it regularily.
Hope that helps a bit.