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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Wasn’t Korea where they make the smartphones that kept blowing up last year? You know, Samsung. I kind doubt anyone’s opinion right off the bat who’s opinions are described as having a "high degree of confidence" or representing the pinnacle of high end audio. Gimme a break! That’s such an obvious Appeal to Authority it’s not funny.
Are you trying to be controversial? Don't we have enough controversy already? 😀


@jea48 > Where is your proof? Hard data? Any science supportive of your claims?

Nope. Not a bit. Just my own ears and opinions as were put down in this thread. I;’m not even gonna Google it to further support my claims.

I don’t care what any science, measuring equipment, theory, or electronic pathology states about anything in life. At some point later on someone will challenge it or refute it, or entirely oust it from popular opinion..

Years ago Coffee was said to be carsenogenic. Then it was red meat. Then it was red meat cooked very rare, then later it was said only the cooked well done meat was bad. And next it will be something else. Super. Fine.

Here is what I can control and attest to which is not my own truth but ‘the’ truth……. As I am able to perceive it.

Once a highly resolving system is established, one with sufficient transparency, exchanging in and out links, componentws, accessories, are all detectable merely from familiarity and astute listening sessions.

Pardon the vain attempt at humor from the power cord no matter how hard you push business. Sorry. It sounded funny to me. It still does.

I view the world at large by hwat, how or when I experience it first hand. It is said here on these pages repeatedly “try it for yoruself’. If a doubt exists.

If you can hear a difference, then there is a difference, in your opinion and may well be a difference in fact. It doesn’t matter what someone else opinion may be… in this arena it is the opinion of whom so ever is chief cook, and bottle washer which matters.

As erstwhile, frank, direct and open as are the notes of our experience we so liberally post on these pages remains, I am hard pressed to figure anyone, is intentionally stating contrary information or being outright deceptive. Passionate? Misguided? Confused? Possibly. But I feel the subjective accounts of members herein are so very often, quite genuine.

I refuse to be lead about by some bit of scientific data which essentially means nothing to me, when I can simply connect this to that and find out first hand what has changed.

So ‘skin effect’ and hole flow’, and aligning microns of the metals thru cryogenics are all just so much nonsense to me.. there is far more to this hobby than focusing on the minutia and remaining so pedantic we allow a past time to become an ‘all the time’ situation. As Riley said about that particular point in time, “the Thrill is gone.”.

There is gonna be smoke and mirrors everywhere there is advertisement. Marketing. Sales and salesmanship. Competition. Technology.

Big deal.

Corvettes have a load of technology built into them lately. How we find out if we like one is to drive it. Period. No other way. We have to experience one first hand.

Audio is the same exact identical thing! Experience things first hand. Damn the technology. Damn the hype. Damn, a lot of this stuff is freakin’ expensive! Lol.

New approaches on older themes occurs all the time. OK. Choose. Listen to them and give them a try…. Or ignore them. Its your pick. I tend to give credence to whomever… at first … and if it is an affordable thing to experiment with.

I’m never gonna know what its like to have a room professionally treated for acoustics. Never gonna know what it’s like to have a complete DCS stack of electronics.

I recently heard Ethernet wires make a diff in the SQ. Really? Well, I can find that out for myself. And will.

Do wires need to be run in? well, they sure sound different after a few weeks of playing than they did the first couple days.

I have more than one system in house. Meager as it may be, it helps me get wires run in with out wasting the main rig’s resources. Hell, the refrigerator does most of the power cord brning in duties.

I’ll plug whatever into the main affair and check it out. But always that day or the next, put it/them into another system to get run in for 7 – 10 days and recheck them. Some need more than 200 hours. Some don’t.
I’m very allergic to ‘placebos’. They do nothing to me physically, but emotionally I’m irritated someone actually thought nothing in a pill could alter my state of mind. Its like being cheated. IMO

So which way should wires run? Find out for yourself. There’s no other legit argument and what you discover regardless what other’s say even in consensus, will be ‘the’ truth, won’t it?

I pray this sheds more light onto my previous post.

I think we might very well have just witnessed the auspicious arrival of a brand new Juror #3 on the set of 12 Angry Men. Welcome aboard, soldier!
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