Cutting insulation of speaker wire without damaging inner wires
For speakers, losing a couple of strands of the wire itself is irrelevant. I know that some of the wire mfrs hawk their "gold plated" wire and make a huge deal about conductivity, but in reality it's all bunk. 16ga wire is rated for 10A, even a typical 350W speaker is going to draw maybe 6 to 7A.