Lew, here is a case in point on using speaker wire. One of my audio buddies was caught up needing an extra power cord. Rather than go out to buy one he made it using a length of Kimber TC-8 speaker. That ended up sounding better than any other cord in his system, thus convincing him power cords can make a difference.
TT Power Cord
How important do you think it is? For some reason it's not been on my radar and I have no problem spending 1-2k on all my other cords. Any opinions?