directional cables?

Clio, the Mogami 2549 is ideal for making shotgun interconnects, using the two center conductors for the signal (hot and return), and floating the shield at one end.

Stan, the kinds of conditions you mention are "direction neutral" in the presence of an alternating current such as a music signal. They can sometimes alter frequency response due to capacitive effects, similar to the boundry interface between conductors and dielectric materials, but again, the physical orientation of such an interface between two materials would not change its effect (if any) on the frequency curve of the signal.
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Ns, I know your mind is made up and you are locked into the one dimensional world of current flow, but the true analysis of the situation can only be done if you think in terms of energy i.e. an electromagnetic wave that travels from point A to point B. Whether it is audio, RF, light, or any other electromagnetic wave they all consist of alternating electric and magnetic fields. At some frequencies they can be easily launched through the air like radio signals and at lower frequencies they are more easily handled with wires since the antennas needed for low frequencies would be huge. If they do follow a conductor then they move the electrons on the wire, but the electron movement is an effect, it is not the cause. Until you give up on current flow as an explanation you will never grasp what is going on.

DC can only be transmitted a short distance

DC can travel just as far as AC at a given voltage. The advantage of AC is that it can easily be stepped up and down with transformers. It is more efficient to transmit high voltages over long distances. The AC or DC would be too dangerous at the higher voltages needed to make it feasible over long distances but the AC can be easily stepped down to a safe voltage level where it is needed and the DC can not.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Currents

energy is only "transferred" when it does some work

Not true. An electromagnetic wave is a form of energy. It can be converted to other forms of energy such as mechanical energy which is what happens in a speaker, but can indeed move about without doing any work. Take the case of a high frequency signal injected into a transmission line. It will travel down the line until it meets either an impedance equal to the characteristic impedance of the line in which case it will be absorbed, or if it meets a mismatch some of it will be reflected, or in the case of a total mismatch (short or open) all of it will be reflected back to the source.

I don't mean to be disrespectful but I don't think you have a firm grasp on the underlying concepts.

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I don't want to argue the theory, I was just reporting the results of various experimenters. In the article "an Idiots Guide to Cables" in the Nov/Dec 2008 edition of HIFICRITIC Chris Bell describes a series of experiments he performed with various DIY cables. He was attempting to match or exceed the quality of various high quality commercial products. He reached several interesting conclusions, among them that "conductors don't have directionality; however, I did find that there were sound alterations while reversing cables, due to tolerance variations with plugs and sockets." Having read much the same elsewhere I assumed that it was another case where the actual world varies from our theoretical expectations.

Stanwal, I agree completely. I'm not trying to explain how cables sound by looking at the underlying physics, I'm just pointing out that the explanations offered by Mr, Garch were flawed and therefore could not explain what was happening.

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Herman, if you want to nit pick about the physics of energy transmission (which is NOT what my remarks here concern) then we can have that conversation privately, and not bore these folks. Is sounds like you accept that a cable (material) will conduct a signal the same way regardless of which end is used at the source and which at the load, or do you disagree with that?

As for the arrows, they simply indicate at which end of a single ended audio frequency cable the shield is tied to ground. This helps to select a common piece of equipment (usually the preamp) as the single grounding point for all the signal cables.

Placing arrows on other kinds of cables commonly used in audio, as if to imply their design is soooo sophisticated that their performance will be affected by their orientation, is a silly marketing ploy used to raise their perceived value in the eyes of unsophisticated consumers ;--)

I do know of one high end cable manufacturer whose glass digital data cables do render different analog results depending how they are installed. I won't even go there, God forbid I've lost my grasp on that technology as well ;--)
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