Interconnect Directionality

atdavid
There is nothing "to prove", though this would typically be later year electrical engineering, engineering physics, physics material related to electricity so it is not surprising that many people do not know it. Asking me to prove it is like asking me to prove 1+1 = 2. It just is.
However, let’s go point by point (all 2 of them).

1. It is not the electrons moving toward the voice coil or the electrons moving away from the voice coil that we care about, it is the electrons in the voice coil.
   
2. The energy imparted to those electrons in the voice coil is dependent on the total e-field (electrical) and b-field(magnetic) in the complete electrical circuit made up of the conductors going to the speaker and away from the speaker

Those two statements are truisms, and no one ever said they aren’t true, at least I didn’t. But it’s like saying the sky is blue. It isn’t really evidence - much less proof - that my explanation of how current in the speaker cables or any AC circuit works is not true. There is power at one + or - wire at a time. It is never simultaneous. Even for high frequency AC at 20 kHz or whatever. One wire pushes the speaker out, the other wire pulls it back. When hooked up out of phase the opposite occurs.

You can also say the electrons are the charge carriers, but they are not the current, which is the charge per unit time at a given location along the wire. You can come up with many definitions. The E and B fields are dependent on - are a function of - the electromagnetic wave that travels through the conductor.

If you accept they are truisms, then you must accept that your explanation is wrong.

Your second statement about "pushing it out" and "pulling it back" ... maybe you should read that again and ask yourself that if you believe this to be true, then if the statement you made is correct.

Again to clarify, my two statements, that you agree are truisms, say everything that is needed to prove that your statement is not true.

geoffkait17,959 posts11-04-2019 6:59amatdavid

Those two statements are truisms, and no one ever said they aren’t true, at least I didn’t. But it’s like saying the sky is blue. It isn’t really evidence - much less proof - that my explanation of how current in the speaker cables or any AC circuit works is not true. There is power at one + or - wire at a time. It is never simultaneous. Even for high frequency AC at 20 kHz or whatever.

One wire pushes the speaker out, the other wire pulls it back. When hooked up out of phase the opposite occurs.

Yes, push and pull is correct. That’s why I wrote it. The same idea is TRUE for power cords and fuses, too. Any wire in an AC circuit. That’s why power cords and fuses exhibit directionality. Including fuses in speakers. That’s why the statement, “All wire is directional,” must be TRUE. And why the common statement, “Wire or fuses in AC circuits can’t be directional because the signal goes both ways,” is FALSE.

You are showing a critical misunderstanding about the way electrical fields develop leading to induced magnetic fields and energy transfer in an electrical circuit.


Directionality can exist when one considers minor differences in cable construction and the timing of reflections due to transmission line effects that would differ in each direction, but those effects arise with very fast edge rates (not analog interconnects as the topic of this thread), not to mention that would also assume some level of impedance matching, something not really existing no matter "claims" when you have source and load impedances significantly mismatched and then non-impedance controlled connectors in the middle, and then cables that exhibit the exact construction end to end. Sure you could make a cable whose impedance changes end to end and that would be technically directional, even though you would be just changing the problem with the mismatched connectors, etc. etc.

However, you are implying something completely unrelated it seems w.r.t. fundamental conduction and energy transfer that is simply not true.

Potential and moving electrons everywhere in the circuit, whether moving in-bulk towards the speaker, amp, whatever, or moving away are responsible for the total e-field and b-field and hence are also responsible en-mass for the energy imparted to those electrons in the voice coil (which moves the speaker ultimately).
If you want to make an "instantaneously" in time argument, then only the electrons in the voice coil matter and the ones outside it whether moving towards or moving have mathematically 0 impact.

Semantics Argument. You say electrons produce induced E and H fields. I say it’s the current that creates them. It’s the Right Hand Rule in action! But the point is, setting aside semantic arguments for a moment, and cutting to the chase, directionality in wire is due to physical asymmetry of the wire. And we are only interested in the signal, current, electrons whatever you wish to call it, moving toward the speakers. That’s why one should CONTROL wire for directionality during manufacture of the cables. Failing that, the end user should always try fuses, speaker cables, digital cable, interconnects, BOTH WAYS 🔛 to see which way sounds better. Follow?