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What do we hear when we change the direction of a wire?

Douglas Self wrote a devastating article about audio anomalies back in 1988. With all the necessary knowledge and measuring tools, he did not detect any supposedly audible changes in the electrical signal. Self and his colleagues were sure that they had proved the absence of anomalies in audio, but over the past 30 years, audio anomalies have not disappeared anywhere, at the same time the authority of science in the field of audio has increasingly become questioned. It's hard to believe, but science still cannot clearly answer the question of what electricity is and what sound is! (see article by A.J.Essien).

For your information: to make sure that no potentially audible changes in the electrical signal occur when we apply any "audio magic" to our gear, no super equipment is needed. The smallest step-change in amplitude that can be detected by ear is about 0.3dB for a pure tone. In more realistic situations it is 0.5 to 1.0dB'". This is about a 10% change. (Harris J.D.). At medium volume, the voltage amplitude at the output of the amplifier is approximately 10 volts, which means that the smallest audible difference in sound will be noticeable when the output voltage changes to 1 volt. Such an error is impossible not to notice even using a conventional voltmeter, but Self and his colleagues performed much more accurate measurements, including ones made directly on the music signal using Baxandall subtraction technique - they found no error even at this highest level.

As a result, we are faced with an apparently unsolvable problem: those of us who do not hear the sound of wires, relying on the authority of scientists, claim that audio anomalies are BS. However, people who confidently perceive this component of sound are forced to make another, the only possible conclusion in this situation: the electrical and acoustic signals contain some additional signal(s) that are still unknown to science, and which we perceive with a certain sixth sense.

If there are no electrical changes in the signal, then there are no acoustic changes, respectively, hearing does not participate in the perception of anomalies. What other options can there be?

Regards.
anton_stepichev
arthur1260
38 posts
 
I found the missing link:
https://www.emilianotoso.com/en/who-i-am/
"epigenetics is the science that studies how our beliefs shape who we are"
mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,159 posts
 
I found the missing link:
https://www.emilianotoso.com/en/who-i-am/
"epigenetics is the science that studies how our beliefs shape who we are"
You are very right and Toso is more than right...

Chosing our belief is ouw own way to create our body and our consciousness...



«I chose the more encompassing rational belief to let each other human his own place in my heart....Music is only a manifestation of this rational  belief in each of us»-Anonymus Smith


anton_stepichev OP
150 posts
 
ihcho510 posts
04-26-2021 4:36pm
Obviously, a uniform single core wire cannot be directional.

From the point of view of physics - yes, any wire is ELECTRICALLY symmetric. In any case, no one has yet refuted the example of the absence of an error when it is amplified by 1000 times in RIAA corrector.

However, there is a difference by ear. This is actually the question - what is the component that does not relate to electricity, but is felt subjectively?

Then, what can cable engineers do to make the cables directional?

No one specifically makes the cables directional, they themselves turn out to be so, since the wires have directivity.

dletch2
455 posts
 
From the point of view of physics - yes, any wire is ELECTRICALLY symmetric.


From a point of physics, you are absolutely wrong. Every manufactured wire is inherently asymmetric because no wire lacks manufacturing imperfections.


In any case, no one has yet refuted the example of the absence of an error when it is amplified by 1000 times in RIAA corrector.

However, there is a difference by ear. This is actually the question - what is the component that does not relate to electricity, but is felt subjectively?

What are you talking about? Linear amplification, as I stated before, does not amplify the relative error. If there was 0.1% distortion before amplification, and you amplify it by 1000, there is still 0.1% distortion. The frequency response before amplification will still be the same after amplification. The SNR will be the same before and after. In all cases, if anything is added, it is due to a defect in the amplification.


No offence, but it is obvious you don’t have the technical background to make the statements you are making. Perhaps it would be better to ask questions and learn more.


However, there is a difference by ear. This is actually the question - what is the component that does not relate to electricity, but is felt subjectively?

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!  That is the only difference. The sound is exactly the same. However, because you know what it is, that influences your subjective opinion. That is why tests for actual sound quality must be done blind.



-- Side note, directional arrows are generally on ICs as the connection of the shield definitely matters. If it is on anything else, it is to make a certain group of people more susceptible to a high price.


djones51
4,947 posts
 
What I hear is a bunch of nuts on a Russian website running in Vector circles of confusion.

The term “Direction” or “Directivity” originated among audiophiles and music lovers in the 1970s. It was then that people first started talking about the fact that audio cables and wires that are symmetrical from the physics point of view are actually not symmetrical at all and somehow change the sound of the audio system when changing the direction of their inclusion. Up until the mid-2000s, it was believed that directivity was a feature of only electrical conductors and most people were confident that the direction of the conductors matters just in signal circuits. Nevertheless advanced audiophiles even oriented mains cables, choosing the best sound position of the plug in the socket. They were considered crazy by almost everybody. The orientation of the conductors in the amplifiers and explanations of the reasons for choosing a particular direction were rather haphazard for many years, in 2005, the orientation of the conductors in the signal circuits and power supply circuits of the amplifiers was finally systematized.

Systematization of directions, along with the selection of components according to special criteria and the use of an extreme simple design allowed you to create an unusual Testing Audio System (TAS), which made it possible to determine the musical properties of individual radio components and wires with unattainable accuracy. It quickly became clear that the direction of the preferred sound of the components almost never coincides with their long side. Even for wires that have an unusually large length-to-thickness ratio, the best sound has always been achieved by touching certain points on the side surfaces. To describe this state of affairs, the term Vector Directivity was introduced.


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