Thank you jeffbij for your excellent explanation of all of this. I really appreciate it & I’m sure many others here do as well.
Directional wires/cables
Is there any reason to support the idea that cables, interconnects or any other kind of wiring can be considered directional? It seems that the theory is that carrying current will alter the molecular structure of the wire. I can't find anything that supports this other than in the case of extreme temperature variation. Cryo seems to be a common treatment for wire nowadays. Extreme heat would do something as well, just nothing favorable. No idea if cryo treatment works but who knows. Back to the question, can using the wires in one direction or another actually affect it's performance? Thanks for any thoughts. I do abide by the arrows when I have them. I "mostly" follow directions but I have pondered over this one every time I hook up a pair.
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@jeffbij Not to continue the war, but while the existence of crystalline grains affecting electron flow may have a base in physics, it still does not support the idea of cables being directional. A musical signal alternates - potentially imperfectly at times, and an AC current (power) alternates rather perfectly, even if potentially distorted from a pure sine wave. Also, note that what is typically called ’electrical current’ is not the motion of electrons, but the variation in electromagnetic field, which is not the same thing at all (see e.g. Veritasium’s video on electricity). I’ll accept that asymmetrically terminated cables (e.g. with shielding connected at one end only) may transmit signal differently if plugged in A --> B vs. B --> A, however I would also point out that it’s not ’the material in the cable’ being directional as such, but the effectiveness of the shielding in two different points of the EM field. This said, if people believe that they hear differences, I’m not getting in their way. |
@jeffbij Would OCC cable not render the directional question moot, as most cable lengths we use would, in theory anyway, be one single elongated grain? |
In an audio system the electrons are not flowing from the source to the destination component. The signals are AC - though a bit asymmetric -so about half the time they are flowing one way and about half the time the other way. Although, I guess there could be some DC coupled SS pre or DAC (no capacitor on the output) where the signal is a modulated DC voltage. Has anyone ever measured a DC offset on a source component's output? For shielded cables where, except for balanced connections, the shield is connected to SIGNAL ground (the outside of an RCA plug) so it is probably true that the source end should be grounded. |
Interesting reading. Thanks for all the participation. It is clear that at least some cables should be used the way they were intended, simply by how they were made. As I said, I have always followed the arrows but always thought that it meant they should point away from the source. I may have misunderstood that but it always seemed logical to me. What about ones that do not have directionality in mind? Will they "learn" to be better in one direction than the other? This would mean that they physically changed over time. This is the part that I struggle with the most. Thanks, Bill |
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