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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
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
jea48
George,

So are you saying if the ICs, as you described above, are reversed end to end you can hear, should be able to hear, a difference? If you can hear a difference then you surely can measure it, correct?

Depends how good you are at hearing something that can be measured.

If they are reversed and the shield is then dumping the RF noise at the source end, you "may" hear it as not as black a background as the right way around, I stress "may" depending on the amount of RF noise around your area.

It’s always best with an interconnect that has only one end of it’s shield connected, that that end should go to the least sensitive component, not the most sensitive one.

Cheers George
jetter
3,035 posts
 
Geoff/George, with an interconnect that has only one end of it's shield connected, but the directionality that Geoff describes is opposite to the shield end, which end should be connected to the least sensitive component?

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georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
but the directionality that Geoff describes is opposite to the shield end,
Then I would say it's been soldered the wrong way to the markings.

Cheers George
bigkidz
3,390 posts
 
Here is my experience.  I was not convinced of this either until I used a cheap IC that came with old Adcom components as a digital cable when I sold all of mine years ago.  I needed to hook up a DAC and used the Adcom clear IC with plastic molded ends make of all copper wire.  We were at a friends home who wanted to hear the DAC in his system.  When we were switching things around someone said hey something changed switch the cable back around.  I did not think anything was different but hey what the heck, changed the cable direction and yep I heard the difference.  We marked the cable direction and that is the way I used it ever since.  Go figure.

Geofkait  Rock On!



Happy Listening.
jetter
3,035 posts
 
big, did anyone think that maybe the wire just needed to settle in at the new direction, versus it was inherently directional?
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