Thom wrote,
"Your excluding shielded designs from the discussion is a bit of a strawman, since the vast majority of cables are shielded and therefore have directionality "mandated" by the shield connection, which I’d hazard a guess has a random relationship with the orientation of the signal wire’s directionality in cables from most manufacturers.
Of course, one can reverse the connection of shielded cables with (electrical impunity)."
Actually I didn’t exclude shielded designs from the discussion. So your statement is actually the Strawman. What I said was it’s more difficult to establish what’s going on in a shielded design since the sound is directional for BOTH the shield AND the conductor. You can think of it as trying to solve two simultaneous equations. But since I’m a nice guy here’s what you can do. Measure the voltage drop across the shielded interconnect, first one direction then the other. Just like the measurements of the fuses on the HiFi Tuning data sheets. Since the shield is not connected at one end you will be measuring the voltage drop of the conductor only. The voltage drop will be somewhat less one way than the other. Just like the fuses on the HiFi Tuning data sheets. Thus, you will be able to determine which way the *conductor* should be connected in the system. The only issue then will be, does the correct orientation of the shield agree with the correct orientation of the conductor. If the manufacturer was a clever fellow (or a lucky fellow) it will. Follow?
Thom also wrote,
"Fuse directionality? Knock your socks off. As implied earlier however, the experiment needs some controls, and one of them I didn’t see mentioned was simply removing and reinstalling the fuse in the SAME orientation. It’s entirely possible that the act of removing/installing a fuse slightly alters the contact pressure and this is what people are reporting."
You’re absolutely correct, there is a possibility that the contact pressure is somehow altered, or that some oxidation is scraped off during the experiment, or that it’s the placebo effect or expectation bias or some other variable. But if the experiment is done carefully those other possibilities can be eliminated from consideration. Just like for any experiment.
geoff kait
machina dynamica
"Your excluding shielded designs from the discussion is a bit of a strawman, since the vast majority of cables are shielded and therefore have directionality "mandated" by the shield connection, which I’d hazard a guess has a random relationship with the orientation of the signal wire’s directionality in cables from most manufacturers.
Of course, one can reverse the connection of shielded cables with (electrical impunity)."
Actually I didn’t exclude shielded designs from the discussion. So your statement is actually the Strawman. What I said was it’s more difficult to establish what’s going on in a shielded design since the sound is directional for BOTH the shield AND the conductor. You can think of it as trying to solve two simultaneous equations. But since I’m a nice guy here’s what you can do. Measure the voltage drop across the shielded interconnect, first one direction then the other. Just like the measurements of the fuses on the HiFi Tuning data sheets. Since the shield is not connected at one end you will be measuring the voltage drop of the conductor only. The voltage drop will be somewhat less one way than the other. Just like the fuses on the HiFi Tuning data sheets. Thus, you will be able to determine which way the *conductor* should be connected in the system. The only issue then will be, does the correct orientation of the shield agree with the correct orientation of the conductor. If the manufacturer was a clever fellow (or a lucky fellow) it will. Follow?
Thom also wrote,
"Fuse directionality? Knock your socks off. As implied earlier however, the experiment needs some controls, and one of them I didn’t see mentioned was simply removing and reinstalling the fuse in the SAME orientation. It’s entirely possible that the act of removing/installing a fuse slightly alters the contact pressure and this is what people are reporting."
You’re absolutely correct, there is a possibility that the contact pressure is somehow altered, or that some oxidation is scraped off during the experiment, or that it’s the placebo effect or expectation bias or some other variable. But if the experiment is done carefully those other possibilities can be eliminated from consideration. Just like for any experiment.
geoff kait
machina dynamica