Directional wires/cables

I’ll add my $.02 of observation - about all it’s worth. I won’t profess to understand why or explain how as I’m a finance guy (retired) and realize the limitations of my background in this area.

I auditioned some TOTL speaker cables - in a line whose “house sound” I am well acquainted with. The dealer didn’t have them in stock so he had his distributor ship them to me. I didn’t like them as they weren’t an improvement over the brand’s model I had in system. The dealer was really surprised and we discovered in talking that the distributor sent me a fresh pair that had never been used. Dealer was frustrated and got a set that had been played in which resulted in a different experience. No - not night and day as the general sonic signature was the same, but there was an ease to the sound that was missing before. Cable break in is fairly well documented.

If cable “break in” is a thing, then is it not possible that they break in directionally? Again - not a physicist. But it made me aware of the potential.

It would not surprise me that some cable types and topologies exhibit this effect to more than others. I’ve since moved on, but used Silversmith Fideliums (superior performance/value at their price range) speaker cables for several years. No dialectric, floating ground, or direction indicated. I can imagine those being somewhat or even entirely immune to the effects of directionality. Indeed, I did not experience them breaking in over time though they may very well have. I can only confirm they were good out of the box. But Nordost and AQ are clear in indicating direction and their topology is markedly different. And I did experience break in with Nordost. On my Matthew Bond speaker cables, they did improve with time (could be my imagination) but the effect was less pronounced than with Nordost (pretty sure it wasn’t my imagination).

My local dealer then relayed a story about another audiophile customer of his who is a professor of biomedical engineering (I believe - might have the discipline wrong - but science related) who does work in the medical imaging field. That customer relayed to him the need for cable break in on their sensitive imaging devices. He said the quality of the image is notably better after the cables have settled in for several weeks. The dealer relayed that story to me after my experience - so it was not “expectation or confirmation bias” that I was exhibiting. It was data confirming what I had already heard.

As always YMMV - particularly given the remarkable variations in cable chemistry, topology and technology employed. Interesting discussion.

It is amazing how people ignore facts, and go on what they think is right no matter what.

My favorite foolish statement this time around in this was when someone stated that if electrons went through metal, they would all build up at one end of the cable.  Utter lack of understanding how electricity flows through a conductive metal (not a problem), then insisting that this was a fact (problem).

The easist way for your own benefit is simply test for yourself.  Cables are always directionally marked, so reverse them.  If you don't hear a difference, it doesn't matter to you.  The only way that you would fool yourself on this would be if you are using lampchords or some other electrical wire.  They aren't marked in what direction that they are extruded, since that detail wouldn't matter for a AC circuit.

Though in reality, cables are directional.  It is a basic scientific fact (not theory).  The extrusion process creates variation in the way that the metal molicules pack.  As the electrons migrate down the wire, the packing variation affects the movement from one end of the wire to the other.  This property is called inductance.

From Wikipedia: Inductance is the tendency of an electrical conductor to oppose a change in the electric current flowing through it. The electric current produces a magnetic field around the conductor. The magnetic field strength depends on the magnitude of the electric current, and therefore follows any changes in the magnitude of the current. From Faraday's law of induction, any change in magnetic field through a circuit induces an electromotive force (EMF) (voltage) in the conductors, a process known as electromagnetic induction. This induced voltage created by the changing current has the effect of opposing the change in current. This is stated by Lenz's law, and the voltage is called back EMF.

There is more going on than just inductance.  But that is the biggest effect and easist to understand.

By training, I was a physical chemist.  I did extensive training and study of the packing of molecules.

But unless you insist on being stubornly stupid, don't feel bad.  I even had to explain this to electrical engineers,  Unless they worked creating audio or video devices, they were unfamilar with the importance of these effects on audio or video equipment.

I remember having a friend over, and he insisted it didn't matter.  At the time he did not have very good stereo equipment at home.  I reversed the leads on one of my systems, then reversed them back.  He looked at me and stated it does matter.

When he bought better equipment and retested directionality himself, he reproduced the effect.

From science, inductance is real, and inductance affects the pathway of electrons through a conductive material.  The packing of the molicules will change inductance.  Stereo equipment is DC, which is a directional current.  Therefore innductance is different in either direction using the same wire.  It is a fact on packing variance.

mgrif104: could have been pre broken in.  Break in is real.

Think of recharable battery memory as another variant.  You have electrons ;moving around a system.  Electrons are the basis of chemical reactions, so by using electricity there is going to subtle chemical changes to your wires.

From my own experiments (the benefit of having more than one good system in my house), once you break in a cable, remove it, then place it on the exact same system, it tends to stay broken in.  Change the cable to another system, you need to go through the break in process from close to squrre one, but it never seems to go back to the point that a brand new cable goes to.

I have a hypothesis on this.  No cable's metal is free of impurities.  Talking to cable manufacturers, control of impurities is very important for consistancy and final quality of audio cables.  There may be some subtle chemical reactions going on between the metal and the components.  You could see how inductance, discussed in my previous post, would change and the interaction between contaminates, the metal component, and also other metals if the cable is a hybrid of say, copper and silver.

There will always be directionality in a wire.  That is the nature of packing on an extruded wire.  It may be very slight in the case of the wires that you are using.  So slight that it isn't material on your particular setup.

I really enjoyed your comment.

@r27y8u92 

I like this quote from Ralph Morrison.

If we accept the idea that fields carry energy in space, it must be true at all frequencies. That is the law. If it is true for light, it must also be true for 60Hz power and at DC. For utility power, the energy travels in the space between conductors, not in the conductors. This is not the picture presented by circuit diagrams, where energy seems to be carried by conductors. In digital circuits, the signals and energy travel in the spaces between traces or between traces and conducting surfaces.

Buildings have halls and walls. People move in the halls, not the walls. Circuits have traces and spaces. Signals and energy move in the spaces, not in the traces.

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 STILL a topic in 2025?

The most impressive thing about this thread is the number of responses in a relatively short time span.

Carry on.

Fun read while I enjoy my fresh ground dark roast listening to newly acquired music from the used bins at my local store.