So you think wire conductors in cables are directional? Think again...

millercarbon9,143 posts05-13-2021 10:33amLet us just say for the sake of argument that you take a look down the street and the car parked a mile away seems to be moving around. Some people look and say no it is so far away I can hardly even tell it is a car. Others look and say not only is it moving around but it is changing shape as I look at it.

You cannot settle this argument so you enlist a physicist. The physicist explains in no uncertain terms the bonds in metal make it far too rigid to possibly be changing shape. The mass of the car and gravity mean it cannot ever just rise and float above the road. It is impossible. You are imagining. It is all in your head. Someone is selling you snake oil.

Until a physicist specializing in atmospheric research comes along and says well look, this is all perfectly understandable. The sun heats the road, the warm air rises in currents. Warm air is less dense and so light passing through it is refracted, bent. This perfectly explains what you are seeing.

This has zero to do with electric current at audio frequencies in a wire. But...it’s typical of overhyped, theoretical fantasies of mind theater interconnects. How does it look to a blind person?

Your analogy is completely irrelevant. Not surprising...at all.

Engineering wise, conductor signal direction makes no sense, especially since we are talking about AC signals that change directions anyway.

However, before anyone says no.  (Which I will quickly as an Electronics/Electrical Engineer), the real test is to hook it up to a signal analyzer, and see if there is a difference.  Then, play a song with the cable in question.  Then reverse the cable and place the same song changing absolutely nothing else.

Blind is better.  If the people in the room and yourself for that matter hear differences, well, there you are.

For Engineers this is a non issue as it doesn't impact what they are designing and using cables for in the first place.  For Audiophiles on the other hand, it is more perceived.

Science is not about perception, it is about repeatable environment and test, to repeat something under the same situation/circumstances/environment.  It is isn't repeatable, it isn't science.  it's magic.

But, I won't say no. I will say, show me.

enjoy

If someone does not hear the direction of the wires, then either he is deaf or the system has a very low resolution.

The fact that engineers and scientists do not know how to measure it is the problem of imperfect models and measuring instruments. Any scientific or even more so engineering model is not ultimately true.

Why is it the direction an AC wire is installed only seems to affect audio systems? You never see people complaining about their refrigerator boiling eggs or stove freezing pizza with backwards wires.

From Chord!
Almost all speaker cables, in fact almost all audio cables, be they for digital or analogue are, in our experience, directional in that the sound will be better with the cable connected in a specific direction. Chord speaker cables should be connected so that the print on the cable reads in the direction of the signal.