Murph & Randy,
Agreed that extra care has to be taken with data circuits as they are higher speed and more prone to reflections as a result of potential impedance mismatch at the joint.
I actually would never recommend that data circuits be crimped but rather soldered or even better, replaced. And they should be tested end-to-end with an SWR meter. The problem out there is that many technicians that serviced audio circuits such as POTS are now also servicing data lines with the same techniques as audio. I'm not insinuating anything about you, Murph. I am expressing a little frustration on my end because these same technicians have caused me and my teams endless frustration over the years even though we've published very detailed instructions about the processes they must use to install DCEs and DTEs.
Audio speaker cables, being lower frequencies, are not susceptible to reflection in a way that can be detected by human hearing. Some use heatshrink over audio cable splices because they are worried about oxidation. I think this too is over-kill but it sure makes the connection look nice and provides for some stress relief.
