Audio Systems: Speaker Wire-Bulk, electrical house wiring, free copper

Question
I decided to cut off a piece of that Monster XP speaker wire I had in my house and then went to Lowes and bought a small section of their speaker wire they sell in bulk.  I then stripped off the insulation from the ends and compared the wire.  It looks like, and I hate to say this because I don't like Monster, and I'm not standing up for their products, but it appears like the Monster wire is of better quality than the bulk stuff.  Comparing the same gauge of wire, the Monster has finer, closer, and much more strands of copper wire as compared to the bulk.  The Monster wire is also softer, whereas the bulk wire is stiffer.  The color of the copper is slightly lighter with the Monster and darker in the bulk wire.  I really don't know if this all means much in terms of quality, maybe you can tell me, but it seems like bulk wire is still definitely worth the savings in cost.  By the way, what do some of the really expensive brands of wire look like when you strip away the insulation.  Are they really worth the price?  Thanks again.

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Followup To
Question -
I was wondering if the speaker wire you buy in bulk (where they cut what you need), like say from a place like Lowes, is good as the prepackaged stuff, like from Monster, Phillips, Recoton, etc.?  It definitely is a lot cheaper to buy it in bulk.  Lowes is selling 12 gauge wire for 20 cents a foot.  That sounds cheap to me.  Also, do some manufacturers of speaker wire not use oxygen free copper?  I thought they would all use that.  I thought copper was copper and all wire is the same?  Thanks for your help.
Answer -
Dear Dave,

20 cents a foot sounds cheap because it is! That does not mean that the product is inferior. It simply means that it's generically manufactured and able to be offered at a lower cost than prepackaged stuff--for which you're also paying for packaging, branding, marketing, etc.

Now, be careful. Make sure you're not buying 3-strand electrical house wiring (commonly called Romex), composed of two solid wires and a ground. You don't want this. It'll do the job, but you have to strip the ground wire out, and it's terribly inflexible. Looks terrible, too. However, if the 12AWG wire is bona fide, stranded speaker wire, go for it. Won't get a better price than that. And you won't get better performance out of the prepackaged stuff.

I shop for my in-wall wire at HomeTech.com. Great bargains on their generic stuff.

"Oxygen free" copper theoretically lasts "longer" because the lack of oxygen in the manufacturing process deters oxidation (the process of air interacting with the oxygen in copper to corrode it--only copper turns green). Okay, but I've had generic 14AWG wire around for close to 20 years and it hasn't even begun to corrode. IMHO, "oxygen free" is another marketing myth with little or no practical effect on the copper or the sound. Its only effect is on your wallet: empties it faster.

Bottom line: buy the cheapest, thickest wire you can find. The rest is hair-splitting advertising designed to segment the brand in the market and prop up artificially high prices. Don't pay for marketing hoo-hah. Wire is wire.

Dave, relax. I wouldn't steer you wrong on this. Get great speakers and luxuriate in great sound. The kind of wire you use won't make a whit of difference.

Kindest regards,

Kevin

Answer
Dear Dave,

I'll stand by my last message: buy the bulk wire. The MC may have more strands and be a different color, but that doesn't mean that you're going to be able to hear any difference in the sound of your system.

Most high-priced wire will look more like the MC when you strip away the insulation, unless they're made of silver or something even more costly--believe me, they exist.

And, NO, they're simply not worth the difference in price.

Kindest regards,

Kevin