Stranded vs singal core conductors and skin effect

I am an engineer. I would not worry too much - either stranded or solid core will work fine. Skin effect is a minor detail - it may affect what you hear above 15 KHz by as much as a mere 0.1 decibel in a worst case - that is assuming you have ears like a bat. If you are like me then it really doesn't deserve the worry.

On the other hand, although solid core is cheap it is also stiff and may give you more trouble with contacts (if you ever move your speaker or amp to clean then a flexible braided wire is much more sensible)

Geometry is best served with +/- speaker wires close together - this lowers inductance - but once again the effect on group delay (speed at which frequencies travel) is in the range of 100 nanoseconds so no need to panic - whatever exotic geometry excites you the most - take your pick - differences are extremely small. 100 nanoseconds is equivalent to 0.1 of a millionth of a second. This is small even if one hundred sounds big (in nanoseconds). I mean can you actually sit with your head and speakers positioned to the precision of one thousandth of an inch (much less than a human hair)- if you can then you should definitely start to worry about it as that is the kind of distance sound will travel in 100 nanoseconds.

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Shadorne:
Thank you. This is exactly the type of input/advise I was seeking. It's so much more enjoyable, and much less of a hassle, to acquire information this way rather than having to sort through all the clutter via a web search. I realize now that the geometry of a cable design deals with the issues of inductance, and size/diameter is related to skin effect and resistance. The more I read up on the matter, the more I think I'll just look for a good assembled cable. It's not as if I have allot of time on my hands, although, it sounds intriguing. I've been reading about some DIY recipes that are "said" to better some really heavy hitters. As an audio enthusiast with an engineering background, have you ever experimented with DIY cabling??

I done a lot of DIY, including a linestage, DAC, speakers and acoustics but good, inexpensive speaker cable is too easily available for me to bother wasting my time. I just look for a sensible design with teflon insulation.