I just stripped some 14 guage wire and most of the ends started to unwind altering the perfect braid of copper put in place by the manufacture. The cable also has a piece of rubber going through the middle of the copper which at this point was exposed on the stripped ends. I had to pull back the rubber and cut it at the bottom. After which, I twisted the ends back up so the copper was tightly wound and no pieces of copper were frayed out. Lastly, when stripping, I did pull a very minimal amount of copper out. Maybe 2 to 3 strands.
My final question would be, did removing that rubber, altering the perfect braid or pulling some copper strands out alter my sound quality even if I twisted the copper on the ends tightly?