Yep... I've got a few home brews too... made with some solid core Teflon wire that Audio Concepts Inc. (ACI) used to sell - only 8ft though. And I have some of the M22759/SPC 8 awg silver coated copper Teflon wire that Zen Styx are made out of also - but only 10 ft. pair.
And I don't believe any of my ready-made cables (Goertz, Nordost, Kimber) are longer than 3 meters either - might be - can't remember.
I'm going to make some copper foil DIY's from unrolled 12 awg. copper foil inductors. I think I will try the side-by-side foil like these guys:
http://mgaudiodesign.com/speakercables.htm just to be "different" than my long-term reference Goertz cables.
I have several sets of Goertz foil cables (both copper and solid silver versions)... they stack the foil conductors for low inductance(but causes higher capacitance) instead of side-by-side. These have been my reference for going on 15 years. I have tried many others, and still own several others, but so far, I always come back to the Goertz. Speed and detail without fatigue is what I hear from them with a very natural tonality overall, especially in the upper frequencies like cymbals, chimes, bells, triangles, etc. Female voice and piano are also rendered exceptionally well to my ears.
Research seems to reveal that "thinner" is better and flat-foil is the way to get thin, while maximizing surface area and allowing sufficient awg size to keep DCR down. I think as long as we are dealing with output transformer coupled power amps, i.e. tube amps or a McIntosh SS amp... that speaker cable length might not be as big a factor as it would be if we did not have output transformers in the signal bath. But I could be wrong as sin about this. Unless long cables pick up some noise, as long as the cables awg is sufficiently large to carry the current/load and has a low DCR... I wouldn't expect degradation (to a point of course).
On the contrary I have read arguments to say go with long interconnects, short speaker cables... i.e. amps close to speakers.. the rest of the equipment beside your listening chair.
I think it "all depends". In the world of crossover-less, high-efficiency, wide-banders, where there is NO xover to literally eat the amps damping factor, current delivery and "rez"... I think we may find that long speaker cables work just fine.... Time will tell.....
On the Styx wire I put these "Furez Tensioned Split Tube Banana Plugs". Solid copper hollow banana with a "squishy" stuff in the middle of the split tube that keeps the tube expanded and maintains high contact pressure when inserted into the binding posts. I really like them. They come in several different sizes to accommodate different wire size and in bare tellurium copper or silver plated form, crimp or screw connection.
http://www.douglasconnection.com/Banana-Connectors_c11.htmgive'em a look-see... you might like! :)
hugh... just ran across this today - haven't seen this before:
http://www.solidcoreaudio.com/doityourself.html - it's Germany... but hey it's a global economy right!