Are there any constants in speaker wire designs?

Kijanki, skin effect isn't considered significant at audible frequencies. At 20KHz it'll be less than 0.2db, which is truly insignificant in the context of real speakers in a real room.

Strand jumping sounds like quasi-technical mumbo-jumbo to me.

In your final paragraph I think you touch upon the real issue - it is all just a placebo effect? From a technical perspective the answer is that there are no audible differences between well designed cables for any purpose, with the emphasis on "well-designed". For speaker cables you must have sufficient gauge and conductor quality, a reasonable trade-off between inductance and capacitance, and proper termination can be important, but beyond that you are paying for mechanical characteristics. Complex layering, individually insulated conductor strands, and fancy woven outer casings can be expensive to build and terminate. The fact that these features may not improve sound quality over 10AWG zip cord is beside the point. If you want a very luxurious and expensive-looking cable it will likely be expensive.

I'm not so judgmental about expensively built cables, at least no more than I am about, say, expensive watches. They don't tell time any better, but if someone is excited about a $50K watch and is willing to pay, I say go for it. My 10AWG cables look like the cheap zip cord they are, and they do not look awesome like expensive 1/2" diameter Audio Quest stuff. But if you choose to believe that these fancy cables sound better, well, there's no evidence *at all* that these cables are better than zip cord. The differences you hear are almost certainly imagined. So is cable break-in.

Seems like it would matter but all the cables I have auditioned over the years sound different. Lots of theories and of course it depends on your gear and what you 'think' you are hearing.

Irvrobinson - I can make argument as well, that if you want to believe that top cables don't sound any better than cheap lamp cord - they won't (negative placebo effect).

Long time ago when I had thick stranded Monster speaker cable and amp with tone control I had treble always set at +2dB. After change to AQ Indigo I had to move treble to 0dB position. Nothing else changed.

I agree that looking at dB scale skin effect is not important in audio but remember that we are able to distinguish sounds of different violin brands so subtle that difference cannot be even measured. 0.2dB might be nothing in terms of volume but can have effect when harmonics are summed differently (frequency smearing). Cable companies not only know more but also design very similar cables (came to similar conclusions).

You cannot possibly explain different sound of copper and silver but if you scan this and other cable forums you'll find that 90% of people found silver to be brighter/faster sounding. AZ Absolute IC that I use is silver with 1% copper. Why would they do that (adding copper), if it doesn't make any difference. It requires making special alloys. Important here is that it is not a marketing ploy since they don't advertise this and I had really hard time to dig this out.

My AZ Satori speaker cable is a class above previous AQ Indigo (transparency, smoothness, speed) but has one characteristic absolutely necessary with lean sounding class D amp - pronounced lower midrange (try to explain this in terms of RLC). Indigo sounds, in comparison, thin and flat. Satori adds fullness and chestiness to male voices. It is pretty big difference that even my wife noticed (sorry honey). You could say again, that it is placebo effect but I bought this cable because somebody else complained on the cable forum about this midrange fullness and sold the cable.

As for differences between cables that are "almost certainly imagined" - my friend says the same about amplifiers and CD players.

Kijanki - "I can make argument as well, that if you want to believe that top cables don't sound any better than cheap lamp cord - they won't (negative placebo effect)."

While I'm someone skeptical about the real sound difference in speaker wires I'll admit to hearing a difference in other audio related things that I wasn't expecting it. I think I'm fairly objective in the sense that I'll admit hearing something when it's not expected. An example was the difference in the sound of a CD player with the addition of Nordost Sort Kones. I did point out that even thought I could hear the difference on Focal Scala speakers and associated hi end gear I would have to guess if the Sort Kones were installed if I left the store and came back later. There were others that considered the difference to be more significant that I did. I'm starting to look for an excuse to demo some different cables and see for myself, but I'm not really to commit to a financial investment quite yet (i.e. 5% down at the Cable Company).

Should I be able to hear a difference between my Monster wires and say a large gage cable from Home Depot? What should I use to do a cheap in home comparison to verify theory for myself?

Mcelio - AFAIK Nordost cables offer specific "house sound". Let just say that if you're looking to add warmth to the sound or suppress sibilance Nordost isn't the one. On the opposite side is Cardas that is warm sounding but does not have transparency of Nordost. Try both if you hear the difference. My Monster speaker wires (thick stranded in clear insulation) were suppressing treble - Nordost should add treble and extension.

Can you borrow cables from the the local audio store for a few days - just to see if you can hear the difference? Ideal would be to borrow completely different families like Cardas and Nordost.