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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
 
@terry9 
I understand the need for more data to accurately arrive at a stat but my point was a knock against mass hysteria/delusion being the culprit.
Your second point was addressed by @geoffkait and I agree with his point that the nazi's Big Lie was a tactic of propaganda whereas what we're experiencing with wires and fuses are first hand observations.

I'm just going to rely on my own ears. They've served me well so far....

All the best,
Nonoise
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geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Never said it did work for everyone. That's the way the cookie crumbles. We've been over that already, ad nauseum. There are many reason why audiophiles sometimes don't get the results they were looking for. Because the thing under test is a hoax or a dud or any such thing is not one of those reasons, however. It's like just about anything, any cable, any tweak, in audio - you can always find someone who doesn't get good results. C'est la vie mon Cherie. You just keep your fingers crossed it's not the dude who is about to review your product for a major online audio publication. 😬

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terry9
2,342 posts
 
@nonoise 

My response was to your direct question about statistics.

As for your point about first hand observation, statistics has something to say about that too. It is very tempting to think that one is experimenting when one is just fiddling. Unfortunately, experimenting can be quite hard, especially when dealing with psychological phenomena, such as sensory perception. To do that right, one needs a lot of sophistication: mathematical, statistical, and psychological.

And then, after all that sophistication, one can still get it wrong, which is why professionals use peer review.

By all means, trust your ears. It's your system and your money.
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