The Contour System – Directional Wiring of Audio Parts


Hi guys!

The topic is about subjective homemade research of conductors directivity. I know most people don't believe in such phenomena so probably the story is not for them but for those who find it unbearable to listen to imperfect sound of chaotically directed wires and components.
As for me, I hear direction difference distinctly. The matter started from interconnect cables quite long ago, after a while I added to my research inner wiring of loudspeakers, then discover the importance of mains cables direction. After all I decided to find the directions of all the wires and components of my pretty vintage DIY tube mono SE amp and after everything had been done I drew a resulting schematic and wrote the article. It was in 2005, I have translated it in English only now. Hope you will find the article useful or just enjoy it.
Here is the Link: https://www.backtomusic.ru/audio-engineering/theory/contour-system.
anton_stepichev
This is crystal-clear scientific logic.
All radio-technical measuring devices are designed taking into account the fact that the conductor is a linear element. If we assume that the conductors are nonlinear, then we have to admit that absolutely everything we know about electricity is false, since all our knowledge about it is based on measurements.




Unfortunately someone has presented you with false knowledge. Those familiar with precision measurements and precision equipment are well aware of the impact of wires on measurement and regularly compensate for them. If they did not, no RF measurement would be accurate. There are enough references in the physical world, to act as calibration sources for something even as simple as wire.

Much of our knowledge far transcends measurements, which only seek to validate physical theories, not create them on their own. There is much to learn still, at the extremes, but we are not talking about the extremes in this hobby.
Thanks for your kind words of support, millercarbon!

@millercarbon
As unlikely as it sounds there really may be a point where its more feeling than hearing.


You know, I came to the same conclusion. A person feels audio anomalies with some "sixth sense", but not with hearing. Otherwise, audiophile puzzle doesn't add up.


@ausaudio
Unfortunately someone has presented you with false knowledge. Those familiar with precision measurements and precision equipment are well aware of the impact of wires on measurement and regularly compensate for them. If they did not, no RF measurement would be accurate. There are enough references in the physical world, to act as calibration sources for something even as simple as wire.


ausaudio, you didn’t fully understand the post you quoted. Circuit design solutions for calibration of measuring devices also rely on the fact that the conductors inside the devices are linear. Think about it.
I doubt he understands anything, fully or otherwise. Your description was perfectly clear and irrefutably logical.

The part about feeling goes with the way you describe cassettes or old 78s. The one time I heard a 78 on a gramophone was some years ago but I still remember the feeling. In audiophile terms the sound was just as crappy as you would expect. But the way I have tried to describe it, it is like our systems when they are really good create the illusion of the singer being there in front of us in the room. When we do this with analog in particular the illusion can be tingly-real. With the gramophone it is more like the singer is in there. Listening to it is like, there's a person somewhere in there singing, and I'm hearing it through this metal and stuff. But she's in there!

Or if you ever did the can with string thing as a kid, you can totally tell it is a real person and not a recording on the other end. The old telephone calls were like that too. Not this cell phone BS we have today.  

Very hard to explain in terms of anything we can measure. Very easy to understand in terms of things we know and feel. Another example I like to use, if you see a trout in a brook the image of the fish is distorted by the water, by the waves, by sunlight glint and glare off the water, silt and whatever else might be in the water, but yet with all of that you know for sure you are looking at a trout. A real live trout.

As opposed to if you take a picture or video of a trout, and look at it the same way, there is no doubt which is which. The video however good is never gonna be confused with the fish. Probably no amount of pixel or wavelength counting will ever figure this out, but we do it with ease.

Something is going on, whether it is with tubes needles or the direction of wires or whatever, something somehow improves or shortens the link, the connection between things. Between us and them. Sorry, but it really is hard not to get metaphysical about it.