Directional wires/cables

@jea48 -

Does the green arrows represent the signal traveling from the source to the load through the dielectric insulation?

Is the EM wave the signal, or does the EM carry the signal? Or is the signal embedded in the EM wave?

         I'm certain you've seen a 60Hz AC trace on an O-scope.

         As you're aware: that's (basically) a picture/capture of a 60Hz, sinusoidal electrical wave and what's being driven, when combined with its corresponding magnetic wave (resulting in Poynting vector's direction) from source to load*.

         Were it the DC voltage/current, from an amp's power supply, modulated by the amp's output devices, into an amplified musical signal; it would appear much more complex, but: still a sinusoidal wave.

                      *outside the dielectric, in the discussed model

          That voltage potential exists, outside of a hot AC lead's conductor/cabling, even without a closed circuit, is why a non-contact voltage detector can work.

                                    Hope some of that helps.

                                           Happy listening!

@jea48

I believe that’s why Teflon, for one, is used instead of cheap PVC insulation.

Other than a vacuum, the best dielectric is air: Check out the construction of Inakustik and their very transparent communications regarding audio cable construction. They even have webinars to signup for free to further people’s understanding.

https://in-akustik.com/blog/how-to-improve-hifi-sound-quality

Scroll down to see their video explanation on directionality:

https://in-akustik.com/cosmos/know-how/faqs-hifi-cables/

@rodman99999,

Thanks.

Were it the DC voltage/current, from an amp's power supply, modulated by the amp's output devices, into an amplified musical signal; it would appear much more complex, but: still a sinusoidal wave.

                      *outside the dielectric, in the discussed model

Complex is an understatement.

I can't understand how anyone could think the signal could travel back and forth in the wire.

.

That voltage potential exists, outside of a hot AC lead's conductor/cabling, even without a closed circuit, is why a non-contact voltage detector can work.

The electric field around the wire.

Without the electric field around the wire a non-contact voltage detector Couldn't work A closed circuit is not needed either.

.

@samureyex -

That is Science.   If you think what you know is absolute, you are betraying Science on a fundamental level.

                                                   +1

                                    As I've often mentioned:

     Feynman was and will remain, my favorite lecturer (yeah: I'm that old).

     He mentioned often (and: I took to heart) his favorite Rule of Life: "Never stop learning!"

     For all his genius, he never grew overly confident in his beliefs.    The perfect obverse to the Dunning-Kruger sufferer.

     ie:  “I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing.  I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing, than to have answers that might be wrong.”

     and: “I have approximate answers, and possible beliefs, and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I’m not absolutely sure of anything.”

@mclinnguy

I watched the video on cable directionality. The guy thinks the signal travels back and forth in the wire. It doesn’t. If it did then cheap PVC insulation would be all that is needed for the dielectric used to cover the bare wire.

This post From an Agon member.

 

The speaker transducer moves forward and backward according to EMF acting on the voice coil - see Faraday’s law and Maxwells equations - so both +ve and -ve current direction along the speaker wire causes transducer movement.

Response from an Agon member that taught this stuff, at the associate degree level..

Again, it has nothing to do with we commonly call "current" which most visualize as electrons flowing back and forth. It simply doesn’t work that way. There is an electro-magnetic wave that transfers energy to the coil of the speaker. If applied to a resistor it creates heat. If applied to an inductor (coil) it creates a constantly changing magnetic field which pushes and pulls against a fixed magnet creating motion. Those stuck in a world of flowing electrons are just that, stuck there. Energy flows, electrons do not.

.

I don’t know why cables are directional. I just know some are.

I have a pair of Clear Day Cables solid silver conductor non shielded single ended RCA interconnects that are definitely directional. Hands down...

AA members that actually built there own cables and the problems they ran into.Lots of posts on cables on AA Cable asylum.

This is just one of many.

https://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.mpl?forum=cables&n=12332&highlight=rcrump+wire+direction

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