Directionality

Someone once told me that cables don't start out directional, but they become directional after they have been used for awhile because the conductors get used to the current travelling in a certain direction (which is also why they are supposed to sound better after being broken in). You can reverse the direction by simply turning the cable around and breaking it in again. It is similar in concept to magnetizing a nail by rubbing a magnet along it many times in the same direction. To make things simpler on the customer, some cable companies put a little directional arrow on the jackets so that you always use it in the same direction. Plus they use it as a marketing tool, because it makes their cable look more "high-tech". Networked cables have their little boxes placed at an optimum point in the cable for a certain direction, so networked cables are more truely directional than other cables.

Gil

While i am not an expert on anything, i play one in my mind : )

Having gotten that out of the way, some cables use what is called a "telescoping ground" scheme. This means that you have the normal + & - wire to complete the circuit but you also have a third wire / braid / shield that is only connected at one end to ground. The grounded end typically connects to the source and the "floating" / unconnected side is attached to the load. This is not a new approach and has been shown to reduce RFI, magnetic field induced distortion, etc... at the expense of slightly altering the cables electrical characteristics ( increased capacitance ).

As to the "crystal structure" forming in a certain direction, etc... I have NO idea about the "technicalese" end of this. All i can tell you is that i can tell a very noticeable difference in interconnects before and after burning them on my Mobie. Evidently, others can too.

I just sent some cables back to one of my buddies in Ohio. He had 5 sets of reasonably priced interconnects that he thought were completely unusable i.e. hard, bright, grainy, glaring, etc.... He disliked them so much that he was going to remove the high quality RCA's and literally throw the wiring out. I talked him into sending them to me for "burning" and then giving them another chance. I just shipped them back to him and he now has them installed in two different systems. He could not believe the difference that it made and finds them completely different in terms of their new sonic signature. Much more relaxed, transparent and smooth.

By the way, the above mentioned cables were "directional" as marked on the jacket and sold by the manufacturer. I checked the cable geometry while they were here and they were making use of the "telescoping shield" design. Sean
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I like Sean's possible explanation ... grounding only at one end. Seems plausible. However the concept of ANY directional cables in audio because of "crystal grain", winding of strands etc etc seems like total nonsense to me since they're all AC signals. I have always tried "directional" cables in both orientations and never heard the slightest bit of difference, so my ears tend to agree that it's nonsense.

Sean has it about right... that's called a "drain wire" in
most places...

You'd want to know which end is which in that case. Thus
"directionality."

Anyone who claims the metal wire or the plastic insulation
is "directional" is, uh, questionable.

In all cases the signal is AC and reverses direction on
each and every cycle, so there is no "direction" to the
signal - think of it as pulling on the rope that makes
up a clothesline with pulleys! Back and forth...

_-_-bear

I was once told by a 30 years old cable manufacturer/designer, directionality a more of a marketing phenomenon than practical.