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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
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,887 posts
 
sthoth,
In answer to your question as to why cables and fuses are always harped about but not speakers and amps and what have you is that they seem to get a pass nowadays but that wasn’t always the case.

Those in the know used to harp about how all a speaker needs to be is this and all an amp needs to be is that and so on, because, measurements. There have always been various opposing camps on them but the dust seems to have settled on those debates and it’s all chalked up nowadays to preference.

It won’t be long before wire and fuse debates die off due to (long overdue) natural causes, and deservedly so.

All the best,
Nonoise
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geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
jea48
Can’t speak for stranded wire. (There in multiple strands of uninsulated wires grouped together under a common insulating covering). I do not have any personal listening experience with stranded wire.  I can only speak for solid core wire.

Thanks. Do you know anyone who can?

😛



geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Well, of course wire directionality wouldn’t show up anywhere except among audiophiles because wire directionality is really defined as the reason wires, cables and fuses SOUND better in one direction than the other. SOUND better in the artistic or sensual or subjective sense. It’s an audiophile thang! Hel-loo! Clever Little Clocks, green pens, Schumann frequency generators, tiny little bowl resonators, crystals for damping -- none of those things are discussed at NASA or Boeing or Lockheed Martin or computer labs, or (whisper)...the Government... either. Gee, I wonder why not.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,821 posts
 
Doesn't Audioquest make stranded cables? To make them directional, they have to keep track of the direction of each single strand, all throughout the assembly of each cable. Wow, that can't be easy.
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