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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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hifiman5's avatar
hifiman5
1,832 posts
 
Now that's deep!
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,887 posts
 
And funny.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 


stfoth
Al--Thanks. I read some portions of the fuse thread, but, to be frank, I couldn’t make it all the way through.

Geoff--You have a dizzying intellect.

>>>>>OK.....

Geoffkait:"Positive results are not due to any of the variables, they are obtained in SPITE of them. See the difference?"

--I don’t. It’s a circular (or backwards) proposition that presumes the truth of the cause and of the result.

>>>>Are you pulling my leg?

"Assume for a moment that directionality is real. Then the few audiophiles who get negative results MUST do so because of some error or hearing issue or one or more of the other reasons I’ve already listed."

--Sort of.

Geoffkait: "By the way, when can we expect your test and test results?"

--I offer no such thing to anyone. I’m a curious simpleton and can only offer that I’ve tried reversing nearly all of my reversible wiring and cabling in five different setups (more, if variations after swapping gear count) and could discern no audible difference.

>>>>>Oh, well, C’est la vie. Feel free to consult my list of possible stumbling blocks where you went wrong.

Assume God exists, in the ultimate "appeal to authority," and God told the directionality folks, "It’s all a lie, there is no such thing as an inherent audible directionality in cabling. It was written by the devil’s left hand. I should know." Then, God also told the skeptical folks, "Yes, indeed. All cabling carries within it the glory of an audible improvement in one direction v. the other. I should know."

Who would be more likely to believe God’s word?

>>>>>Heavy. The ultimate naysayer argument. Is God following the wrong sheep, too?

🐑 🐑 🐑 🐑 🐑 🚶


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