Part 2 - why wire directionality affects the sound
Copper and silver and most metals are comprised of crystal structures in their natural and molten states. As such, their atomic structures are symmetrical. If wires could be produced simply by pouring molten metal in a cast they would be atomically symmetrical lengthwise. And would therefore not be directional.
But when wire is pulled through a die the entire cross section of the wire is deformed, not only the surface. I.e., the metal crystals are squeezed, crushed and elongated in the direction opposite to the pulling. Like the quills of a porcupine. 🦔
Now we come to “Perfect Surface” technology, which at least one company is using for cable manufacture. Highly polishing the surface of a solid core wire is claimed to reduce directionality by reducing high frequency distortion. But the signal in wire is not the music waveform. It’s alternating current and voltage, not frequency. 🔛So the skin effect should be irrelevant.
What is the audio signal? Photons, not electrons. Electrons are the charge carriers. Current and voltage are electromagnetic EM waves that travel in wire at near lightspeed. Only photons can travel near lightspeed in wire. All electromagnetic waves are photons, visible lightbeing a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. X-rays and Gamma Rays are also comprised of photons, but photons of much higher energies.
Current is not the music waveform and does not contain audio frequencies.
The EM wave traveling in the direction away 🔜 from the speakers is not (rpt) audible so we don’t care if that EM wave is distorted. We only care about the EM wave headed toward the speakers, that direction is audible.🔚
So here’s the $64,000 question: How is the signal - the EM wave, the current - in wire affected by deformed crystal structures? And how does that affect the final sound produced by the speakers? The electromagnetic EM wave (photons) in metals is slightly - but audibly - distorted when it encounters deformed crystal structures pointing towards it. Like stroking a porcupine’s quills in the wrong direction. The EM wave is not distorted when it travels in the same direction as crystal deformation - like stroking a porcupine’s quills in the right direction. 🦔
