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Directionality of wire

I am a fan of Chris Sommovigo's Black Cat and Airwave interconnects. I hope he does not mind me quoting him or naming him on this subject, but Chris does not mark directionality of his IC's. I recently wrote him on the subject and he responded that absent shunting off to ground/dialectric designs, the idea of wire directionality is a complete myth. Same with resistors and fuses. My hunch is that 95% of IC "manufacturers", particularly the one man operations of under $500 IC's mark directionality because they think it lends the appearance of technical sophistication and legitimacy. But even among the "big boys", the myth gets thrown around like so much accepted common knowledge. Thoughts? Someone care to educate me on how a simple IC or PC or speaker cable or fuse without a special shunting scheme can possibly have directionality? It was this comment by Stephen Mejias (then of Audioquest and in the context of Herb Reichert's review of the AQ Niagra 1000) that prompts my question;

Thank you for the excellent question. AudioQuest provided an NRG-10 AC cable for the evaluation. Like all AudioQuest cables, our AC cables use solid conductors that are carefully controlled for low-noise directionality. We see this as a benefit for all applications -- one that becomes especially important when discussing our Niagara units. Because our AC cables use conductors that have been properly controlled for low-noise directionality, they complement the Niagara System’s patented Ground-Noise Dissipation Technology. Other AC cables would work, but may or may not allow the Niagara to reach its full potential. If you'd like more information on our use of directionality to minimize the harmful effects of high-frequency noise, please visit http://www.audioquest.com/directionality-its-all-about-noise/ or the Niagara 1000's owner's manual (available on our website).

Thanks again.

Stephen Mejias
AudioQuest


Read more at https://www.stereophile.com/content/gramophone-dreams-15-audioquest-niagara-1000-hifiman-he1000-v2-p...


128x128fsonicsmith
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Fsonicsmith
My hunch is that 95% of IC "manufacturers", particularly the one man operations of under $500 IC’s mark directionality because they think it lends the appearance of technical sophistication and legitimacy."

Question: Why on Earth would anyone in his right mind mark his ICs or speaker cables or fuses with arrows just to lend "technical sophistication and legitimacy" to his products? You know, since many or perhaps even most audiophiles are JUST LIKE YOU and don’t buy into the whole wire and fuse directionality thing. Hel-loo! Please refer to my post last week regarding PATHOLOGICAL SKEPTICISM on one of the fuses threads. Further, Audioquest, a strong advocate of wire directionality, is hardly a one man operation. One more thing, fuses aren’t marked for direction, that’s left up to the user to decide.

In fact, your argument is similar to the argument that most high end cable manufacturers cryogenically treat all their cables to lend technical sophistication and legitimacy to their products. 😀 If that’s true how do you explain the cable manufacturers who don’t advertise they Cryo their cables? Answer at 11.

I personally think it’s just a question of how competitive you as a manufacturer wish to be and how hard you want to win Best of Show.

cheers

fsonicsmith's avatar
fsonicsmith OP
959 posts
 
Further, Audioquest, a strong advocate of wire directionality, is hardly a one man operation.
I apologize for sounding rude, but please read carefully before you pipe-off. I specifically contrasted AQ as a "big boy" operation.
As to the rest, I don't mind your perspective a bit even though it is not my own. I am hardly an objectivist. I spout the old chestnut, "Not all things that can be measured count and not all things that count can be measured" more often than most people sneeze. I too bought into directionality of all IC's and cables. As I said, Chris Sommovigo made me less certain. 
As to fuses, does the name Roger Modjeski ring a bell? Please (carefully) read this; http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=105425.0
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,887 posts
 
Here we go again. 😧
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
It’s always great when some excitable new person comes along and starts a new thread on wire directionality, especially when he is a skeptic. It’s a little like telling the same joke over and over to someone with a memory disorder - even though he’s heard the joke before he still laughs heartily. A good time is had by all. 😛 Let’s rock!
don_c55
1,025 posts
 
Single ended interconnects are directional because they are grounded at the source end only, for lowest hum pickup and resulting low noise. 
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