When you go up the AQ (and some other manufacturers) cable line you don’t only get bigger gauge wire. You get better quality materials and better connectors. You have to figure all this into equation. And connectors do make a difference.
All being equal, will you hear the difference between the same quality cable of 12 and 10 awg terminated with the same connectors? I guess it’s possible but depends on a lot of other factors.
Will increasing speaker cable AWG make a difference in sound quality?
Increasing speaker cable size (for example w/AQ the cable sizes move up in size from 15AWG to 10AWG) improve sound quality?