Directionality Explained

Our audible ability is poor for certain types of differences. Except where large resistance, capacitance or inductance are brought into play significantly impacting frequency response, and/or volume balance, there is little (almost none), what would pass for scientific evidence, that humans can detect changes brought about by cabling. Lots of anecdotal evidence, with some evidence w.r.t. speaker cables where cable bulk parameters are such, either on their own, or by generating amplifier instability, that changes are large enough in the frequency response to be audible.   If cable direction (or cables at all), made such significant impacts, then their vendors would be clamouring over each other show that is actually the case. It is not a matter of they rarely demonstrate, it is a case of they absolutely never demonstrate it. Like literally never.


"Our hearing has been shown to be highly acute". How so? Can you quantify what that means?  Most people completely misinterpret the scientific evidence that actually exists. Our ability to tell apart two sounds of similar volume is somewhat low. Introducing fairly significant phase-shifts across the frequency response is not readily detected, if at all, and the differential ear/ear timing ability of microseconds, does not confer a frequency response beyond 20Khz, or any other properties beyond differential timing.

And no, that last statement is not an opinion, that is simply a fact of basic manufacturing control. A cable that is 50 ohms characteristic impedance in once direction doesn't become 40 in the other. The difference in direction will be small, or you wouldn't be able to have 50 in the first place.

andy21,116 posts05-25-2020 11:29pm

This "directionality" at least as it applies to audio, would be easy to measure and/or quantify .... sort of like dielectrics, and once quantified, could be evaluated if within the realm of audibility

Using this logic, then all cables should sound similar since human hearing can hear any difference.

Most bulk circuit effects, i.e. resistance, inductance, capacitance are not even at the level to be audible (unless poorly designed/specified).

Again, this logic suggests that our audible ability is so poor we couldn't tell the difference. But it's been shown our hearing is highly acute.

The direction differences in those values, unless intentional, will be orders of magnitude below that .. or inaudible.

Certain an opinion and not a factual statement.  

That's because the resistance would not be different from one direction compared to the other. The impedance at a given frequency will be different though, but practically, at audio frequencies, with any reasonably manufactured cable, the difference in impedance from one direction compared to the other would be again orders of magnitude less than other dominant impedances.

andy21,116 posts05-26-2020 12:20amAlso I don't buy the fact that the "resistance" is lower in one direction vs. the other as said here by Mr. Kaitt.

For example, each spool of wire consists of many many meters of wire. If the wire always measure less resistance in one direction, then by the time you measure from the beginning to the end of the spool, the resistance may go smaller and smaller into "negative". So this can't explain it either.  

heaudio123- Our audible ability is poor for certain types of differences. Except where large resistance, capacitance or inductance are brought into play significantly impacting frequency response, and/or volume balance, there is little (almost none), what would pass for scientific evidence,.

One more time, since logic clearly is not your strong suit-

Our audible ability is poor for certain types of differences...
there is little (almost none), what would pass for scientific evidence,

So which is it? "Our audible ability"?
Or "what would pass for scientific evidence"?

Oh and while you're at it, just who gets to decide "what would pass for" scientific evidence?

Would it by any chance be you?

If the wire only behaved as resistance and inductance in series, then there would be no difference in direction. However, the wire also has capacitance, and the capacitance acts as another conductive path at non-DC frequencies between the + and - wires. If you draw wire as a bunch of resistors and inductors in series, with capacitors between +/-, and you recognize all those resistors, inductors, and capacitors are different, then it becomes obvious the wire must have directional effects. The debate is not about whether those effects exist or not, it is whether they are truly audible. That directional change would be measurable.

djones512,046 posts05-25-2020 9:51pmIf the direction of the wire caused a change in current it’s measurable.

http://amasci.com/miscon/whatis2.html#4

Not specifically me, but it would be people who have a clue what an experiment that involves subjective human response looks like, and any time you have to measure subjective human perceptive response, you have to isolate what is being tested, which means using only your ears, and not your eyes. Test as long as you want, test with whatever music you care to test with, get 20 of your audiophile buddies together, ... you just don't get any visual clues about what is happening. This is not rocket science.

millercarbon4,500 posts05-26-2020 1:03am

Oh and while you're at it, just who gets to decide "what would pass for" scientific evidence?

Would it by any chance be you?