Home Depot 14/3 outdoor rated extension cords as speaker cable.
Above photo: looking at the outer jacket in detail. The 3 leads within the jacket have a slow twist configuration.
I cut the cord into 4 - 6-foot lengths. I paid no attention to directionality of the cord. 
At the moment I'm comparing these to my previously used Monster cables. The individual copper strands, as seen in the above photo, are fewer and larger in diameter than are the Monster 2RCL cables. The jacket materials look different too. My guess is that the HD14 cables are using pvc jackets over the strands. Can't say what the outer insulation material is, but it is very supple.
It's early to be drawing any conclusions but, so far, I see no reason to remove the "hd14" cables.
-Steve
System info @:
http://www.theanalogdept.com/user510.htm
