Interconnects, some have directional indicators, why?

atmasphere
"we’re talking about metals that are 99.999999% (sic) pure in the case of copper.
This is a common myth! No copper produced for audiophile or other uses is better than 99.99%. Anyone telling you anything else is lying. The fact is that while copper can be made pretty pure (in which case its state looks more silvery than copper colored) but the simple process of extrusion with an insulation insures that 99.99% is the best you get. If you want proof just look at the color of the wire.

Further, oxygen-free copper was not developed for audiophiles. It was developed for alternators and generators for their brushes, because oxygen-free copper is more flexible. Once oxygen-free copper has been in the field for a few weeks, its purity is about the same as regular copper.

IOW the ’6 nines’ copper thing is a marketing myth. Anyone tells you they have that turn the other way and run as hard as you can."

I’m not referring to oxygen free copper, which is 3 or 4 nines copper. I’m referring to 6N copper, 99.9999% - not to mention the Japanese who have had 7N copper wire for many years. Hel-looo! Besides, why should I believe someone who doesn’t know the difference between a magnetic field and an electromagnetic wave?

even if you’re right (which i doubt) the purity of say 2 or 3 nines copper does not leave much room for impurities, at least not enough to produce directionality, which is what kraftsound was pushing in his previous post. Even if there were 5% impurities in audio wire which there’s obviously not, there’s no reason to think that the impurities would favor one direction over the other. If it doesn’t make sense it’s not true.

"You can tell by the color of the wire" funny

kijanki said:                                                                  2-05-2016 8:37pm

Current in the wire is a flow of electric charge. Wire creates magnetic field but transports charges and not the energy. Energy is transferred thru magnetic field from the source to the load.
The load has some voltage drop in it, hence electric field. Together with magnetic field, this brings the energy in. Same way, the source generates voltage and, together with magnetic field, this brings the energy out.
Direction of electromagnetic energy flow is determined by the Poynting vector, E × H, and depends on both voltage polarity (through E) and current direction (through H).
As I understand it, even in DC circuit energy flows from source to load thru the space in direction of Poynting Vector.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poynting_vector

Kijanki,

I have a question, off subject of this thread. I would appreciate hearing your thoughts.

What would the AC waveform of a 120V Branch circuit look like where the hot, neutral, and equipment grounding, conductors are all braided together and then installed inside a steel conduit? The branch circuit is less than 8ft long. The Conductors are #12, I believe stranded wire.

What impact would the 3 braided wires inside the conduit have on the electromagnetic wave traveling down the braided wires from the source to the load?

Could it have an impact on the power supply of a big power amp? (Boulder 3060 amp) Could it cause a comment like this, " but still has a layer of syrup over the presentation that shouldn’t be there and loose bass".
Thanks,
Jim

jetter
"Geoff, above and in many discussions you have stated that the wire drawing process impacts the wire crystal structure making it inherently directional.

Assuming it does, I think the question is does this impacted crystal structure in some way make an audible sound difference when the wire is inserted into a system in one direction or the other?"

imo the answer is yes. whether the wire is the wire in a cable, in a transformer, wire in a fuse or capacitor or in the internal wiring in electronics or speaker. Thus when you reverse unshielded interconnects that are in all outward appearances symmetrical you should notice the sound change for the better or worse, depending on whetyer they were connected in the correct direction to begin with or not.

jetter also wrote,

"One might think that in order for it to make a difference, the signal, power, whatever, would need to flow differently depending on the direction of the crystal structure. This would imply that if the wire was inserted incorrectly from a directionality viewpoint, the crystals are impeding, or in my obviously non scientific terms ,snagging and impeding the signal or power compared to the correct direction and this somehow impacts the sound."

That’s right, imo. The wire is phyically asymmetrical, like the quills on the back of a porcupine. i would say this asymmetry causes distortion of the audio signal, even if the wire (fuse) is located where the power cord comes into the amplifier, even if the wire is located in an AC circuit. it is audible and measurable.

Jim, electromagnetic field would be contained in conduit or even braid.  Very often explanation of Poynting Field brings example of coaxial cable, showing that whole energy flows thru dielectric between the wire and the shield.  As for Boulder 3060 amp - I don't know.  Perhaps somebody else?  Al?

Kijanki, thanks for the good comments about the Poynting Vector etc.

Jim, wow, the Boulder 3060 is certainly quite a monster -- 441 pounds including its 86 pound granite base, a price well north of $100K, and 6000 watts max power draw. Given the latter, it is of course designed for use with 240VAC, not 120.

Regarding your question, I doubt that anyone could provide more than a wild guess. Partly because the effects on the AC waveform of the 8 foot run you described wouldn’t seem to have a great deal of predictability, partly because those effects would seem likely to be less significant than variations in AC waveform characteristics and voltages among different locations, and partly because we don’t have detailed knowledge of the internal design of the amp. And even if we did have detailed knowledge of the amp’s design it seems quite conceivable to me that extensive tests and measurements would have to be run to pin down the specific sonic character of whatever effects might result, if any.

Best regards,
-- Al