Will increasing speaker cable AWG make a difference in sound quality?

I was given some heavy networked speaker cables years ago, but changed to a much lighter easier to handle 8 stranded set of 13 gauge aggregate braided wire.

No change for the worse, and having had my speakers apart, I know it's many times thicker than the  internal wiring, inductors, or capacitors they use.

If a larger cable sounds different, that is because the smaller cable was not letting everything get through.  I always laugh when someone tries to say a smaller cable is better in their system....that's saying they are like the truncated sound better.

In my limited experience with this kind of stuff, here's what I found, with the same amp (McIntosh MA5200), same speakers (Revel Performa 3 F206 - 8 Ohm nominal load) and same lengths of (copper) cable (6 feet).

Going from 16-gauge Monster Cable to general all-purpose multiply shielded 16-gauge AudioQuest cable (cut from a large spool at the stereo shop) yielded a slightly improved sound quality ... I think. However, that could have been me just trying to convince myself that I could hear an improvement. That's how slight the improvement was ... if there was one.

Going from the same multiply shielded general all-purpose 16-gauge AudioQuest cable to 12-gauge AudioQuest Type 8 definitely yielded better sound quality. The improvement was, admittedly, relatively slight but immediately palpable or "hearable", if you will. I didn't have to strain or listen hard or for very long to notice the difference and I seriously don't think it was me trying to justify the expenditure. She Who Must Be Obeyed, never one to hesitate to give me a brutally honest opinion, when asked or not, said she could hear a significant improvement, as well.

Now, would going to good quality 10-gauge speaker cables and/or super expensive exotica cables with these same components yield even better sound quality? I seriously don't think so. I've done serious seat-time with the same components in stereo shops using super expensive exotica cables (e.g.  AQ Robin Hood - apt name, don't you think ... rob from the poor; give to the rich - sorry; couldn't resist; Nordost; Kimber; Transparent). Granted, the acoustic characteristics of these disparate sound rooms varied, the wiring in the different buildings was likely different and all that jazz, and they were all using banana plugs (I'm a firm believer in high-quality spades at both ends, if possible). However, I still didn't hear any significant differences or improvements in sound quality from my home set-up. There are some who firmly believe they can, indeed, hear infinitesimally small improvements or, rather, differences in performance of various reasonably good and/or high-end quality speaker cables and connectors. If you are convinced that you can hear a difference in performance and/or sound quality that appeals to you versus one cable, connector or whatever over another and think it's worth it, then go for it!

Now, I don't have a Mikey Fremer system that would justify super expensive speaker cables, connectors, etc. I'd have to build a dedicated sound room to justify anything like that. Maybe someday ... if I win the lottery or some long lost relative leaves me a million-dollar inheritance.

Canare 4S11 speaker cable.  11 gauge, about $1.25 per foot.  Better than my uber expensive (4 figures) Groneberg Quattro Reference speaker cable.

I'm loving my Denon DCD-1700NE. It plays CD, SACD and DVD-R with high-res files.

However, I have added a major tweak that that fixes a serious omission. In fact, I believe almost all manufacturers don't understand the implication of this oversight.

We all understand the importance of clean power with shielded cables. The same with shielded interconnects.

Once the power is inside the component, shielding is still necessary and is perhaps just as important, if not more so.

Here's my Denon with shielding.