Braid for proper geometry, not aesthetics. A simple twist or 4-strand round is probably best.
And though it is less useful to you unless you can cancel your cable order, I will echo that cables should be the last thing you tweak. $500 is a big chunk of change that can take you to a whole other level of amp or DAC that will likely make more of a difference than the cable ever will.
Smaller holes, but more of them. Would you rather get diddled by three little plugs or one big one? ... something something huff and puff and lots of blowing
