David, you beat me to it. I just read Roger’s article and was going to link it here. FYI, for those interested, read Roger’s other articles on cables at the same site and let it all sink in.
All the best,
Nonoise
All the best,
Nonoise
Directional cables - what does that really mean?
Some (most) cables do sound differently depending on which end is connected to which component. It is asserted that the conductor grain orientation is determining the preferential current flow. That might well be, but in most (all) cases the audio signal is AC (electrons going back and forth in the cable), without a DC component to justify a directional flow. Wouldn't that mean that in the 1st order, a phase change should give the same effect as a cable flip?
I'm curious whether there is a different view on this that I have not considered yet.
I'm curious whether there is a different view on this that I have not considered yet.
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Had to choose one of many threads on the topic. Dart hit this one... Thanks for the link. Will read later with a glass of wine :-) |
While I don’t really have an explanation, it hardly seems possible to me that minuscule traces of impurities that might be found in 6 nines copper can be responsible for the rather impressive changes to the sound when reversing cables. This was also the point made by HiFi Tuning in their results of a thorough evaluation of audiophile fuses, which appears on the Data Sheets on the HiFi Tuning website. What HiFi Tuning says, in effect, is the relatively small measured differences in voltage drop for the fuses under evaluation, don’t completely explain the relatively large differences experienced in listening tests. [In fact, the measured differences were much smaller than HiFi Tuning states (5%) on the Data Sheets, by almost AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE. Hel-loo!] So, I hereby declare considerable mystery still surrounds the whole directionality thing. Fortunately, all the world loves a mystery, right? 😛 |
And another thing. Roger Skoff’s theory that for continuous cast copper or long grain copper wire that impurities that build up between grains causes wire directionality doesn’t make sense since any effects of impurity build-up would be random in nature, whereas wire directionality is not random. It’s predictable, transferrable and repeatable. If it was random you couldn’t control it. I scoff at his theory. 🤔 If it doesn’t make sense it’s not true. - Judge Judy Addendum - He also left out the most important part of the whole directionality theory - how the audio or electrical signal is affected/changed by reversing the direction of the wire or cable. I.e., why is the sound better one way that the other? If the sound is more distorted in one direction, why? |
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