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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
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shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
@jea48

The speaker transducer moves forward and backward according to EMF acting on the voice coil - see Faraday’s law and Maxwells equations - so both +ve and -ve current direction along the speaker wire causes transducer movement.

A wire with directional properties would be a disaster for reproducing accurate audio. So Audioquest marketing mumbo jumbo is obviously just mumbo jumbo - Otherwise their products would not work .
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
But Al, the question does not hinge on whether you think the effect is subtle or whether you would lose any sleep over it. Once again you seem to be arguing just to argue. As with your customary assertion, "well, maybe there is some directionality in wire." It doesn’t matter whether you think it might be too subtle for you to hear. Many audiophiles hear directionality very distinctly. But like anything audio related, the effects vary. For example, the effect of reversing one of many fuses will be masked by the fact some of the other fuses are still in the wrong direction. Obviously there will always be a couple of folks who can’t hear it at all. C’est la vie.

almarg's avatar
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
Hi Jim (Jea48),

As I’m sure you realize, both the fast moving energy and the slow moving current (defined as electron movement) are amplified by a power amplifier. And while it is the energy that propagates at near light speed that is responsible for what is heard, in the case of electrical signals that are being conducted through wires the near light speed propagation of that energy (in essentially one direction) and the very slow back and forth movement of individual electrons are intimately related, and neither would exist without the other.

Best regards,
-- Al

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