Solid Copper Cables

I'm a budget audiophile and get confused (disheartened) at seeing all the ads and forum talk about paying through the nose for a pair of speaker interconnects. I got an idea to use solid 12 AWG copper wire for speaker interconnects. Using bare wire as the only connector I feel I'm getting straight signal. I don't know much about the technicalities, but if anyone has experienced any downsides to this let me know. I compared them to a "mid-fi" handmade cable that I own and must admit, the solid sounds cleaner, with richer bass and more organic vocals. This could also be the glee I felt at a combination of factors; 1. not blowing up anything in my system and 2. spending so little for something that I realize does not sound any worse than my current interconnects. $14 for the solid pair of 10' bi-wire, $120 + shipping for the hand made 6' bi-wire pair.

My system is:
Cambridge Audio D500se - CD
Adcom GTP 500 - Preamp
Adcom GFA 545 - Amp
Music Hall MMF 5 - Phono
Paradigm Moniter 9v3 - Loudspeakers
Heartland Cables - interconnects

BTW, this system sounds great for Jazz.

Comments please!

thanks,

Richard