Geoffkait,
To keep things simple, when referring to "in the signal path" I am talking about whatever is actually connected to the circuitry of the system.
Regarding electrons, of course I misstated this. I should have said the audio signal travels awfully fast through cables -- not the electrons. To clarify, the electrons themselves are not actually "flowing" at lightning speed when we talk about the flow of electricity. It is the energy flow via the electrons that creates the audio signal. While the actual speed of the electrons themselves is slow and their movement is characterized by more than one form of movement, the sound we hear actually travels very fast via the energy flow through the electrons. If we had to wait for the electrons themselves to arrive with that signal we would be very disappointed. Each modification of the signal path via cables and "tweaks" changes the signal flow via the electrons. I hope this clarifies how I see signal modification happening.
To keep things simple, when referring to "in the signal path" I am talking about whatever is actually connected to the circuitry of the system.
Regarding electrons, of course I misstated this. I should have said the audio signal travels awfully fast through cables -- not the electrons. To clarify, the electrons themselves are not actually "flowing" at lightning speed when we talk about the flow of electricity. It is the energy flow via the electrons that creates the audio signal. While the actual speed of the electrons themselves is slow and their movement is characterized by more than one form of movement, the sound we hear actually travels very fast via the energy flow through the electrons. If we had to wait for the electrons themselves to arrive with that signal we would be very disappointed. Each modification of the signal path via cables and "tweaks" changes the signal flow via the electrons. I hope this clarifies how I see signal modification happening.