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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
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
OK, everyone, stay calm. My understanding is Randy isn’t really a pinhead as many folks think, she's just a normal 14 year old girl who has access to her mom’s computer.

🙎




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geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
stfroth, as always a good rant, and an entertaining one. When you imply, well you actually say, some folks hear directionality, I don’t think you fully appreciate how long this debate has been going on or just how many people have invested in aftermarket fuses since they first came out, was it Isoclean and HiFi Tuning? And they were followed by a host of others. I reckon there must be thousands of satisfied aftermarket fuse customers with probably, I’m guessing here, many hundreds of positive reports on various audio forums as well as on manufacturer websites over the years.

The other point worth making is that if you think naysayers and skeptics react vehemently to fuses and wire directionality just wait’ll ya get a load of when something really controversial and preposterous comes along. Then you'll see the fur fly. What kind of things, you ask? You know, things like tiny little holographic foils for CDs, battery powered clocks that improve the sound when placed in the room, cream electret, tiny little bowl resonantors, things of that nature.
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geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
stfroth, just for the record I haven't given a personal opinion as to what I hear with directionality one way or t'other. Heck, I don't even use fuses or cables in my system. How about them apples? Then why are you even in this thread, you ask? The action. 😛

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