Directional interconnect cables

Mr T- If that sounded like a "personal affront"- Sorry! I like to see those having their minds open to certain possibilities within this hobby(that don't yet have concrete explanations-and there are a bunch) presented those views, with an amount of substantiation. That the telecommunications industry believes cable directionality exists(though it's not fully understood), and takes steps to insure it's oberved in their installations, lends credence(at least to me). Happy listening!

How does a manufacturer decide directionality? If they get a spool of cable, terminate the ends the same, without doing anything differnet to either end, and the reason for this directionality is unknown, how do they make sure they've got it right?

07-29-08: Rodman99999
It depends totally on the manufacturer. Kimber for instance grounds both ends(shields and connectors) of their cables(balanced and single-ended), and the arrow(or direction of the printing) indicates the signal flow.

If both ends are grounded in the manner you say, then it makes no frickin' difference. It's a marketing ploy. If people think the cables have to go this way, they can charge more.

Come on man, use your head, think about it....

As far as being able to hear the difference in a cable that is constructed in this matter, it's the placebo effect.

Just my opinion.

Apparently- You didn't bother reading anything I submitted. I've used my ears as well as my head, and the facts of metal composition(crystaline structure). As I mentioned before: There are a number of things that affect the sound of an audio system(or the passage of signals through conductors/semiconductors) that(as yet)have no concrete explanations. That does not negate the fact that they exist. If you can hear the difference: No explanation is necessary, if you can't: No explanation is possible. When the steam engine was invented, there were those("scientists") that insisted the human body couldn't withstand speeds over 35MPH. Of course: Tomatoes were thought to be poisonous for quite a number of years(they are red, after all), and man will NEVER walk on the moon either(or are you of the crowd that believes that to be a hoax too?). I wonder what you would have said about people experimenting with Ferrite Beads when they were first thought of?

I am using directional cables from Siltech. Early summer this year, I reconfigured my system around headphones so that my tube amps could go into hibernation for the summer.

So after getting the headphones setup and listening to my phono stage through headphones, I noticed the left channel was slightly out of whack compared to the right channel. It sounded jumbled like phase was confused slightly. Sure enough, the left IC was backwards in terms of signal direction and cable direction.

I reversed the direction of the cable and everything was balanced. Ahhh...much better.

I know Siltech uses a very specific cable winding/stranding techniques for signal direction. I suspect having the cable in backwards threw off the optimal stranding Siltech employes, thus the left channel phasing was not as accurate as the right channel.

So I learned the 1st had about Siltech's directional cables and how it impacts sound. It does make a difference in this case.