I need help on directionality of speaker cables

he reason I ask is that a digital signal, by it's very nature, doesn't have frequency in the way analog signals do. As I've quoted above from a reputable book on electronics, a digital waveform is a DC signal that varies between zero volts and a max volts,

Transmission of digital data, as I quoted from the electronics text, is DC

You are probably confusing the way Digital is represented in a drawing....most encyclopedia's and layman reference material incorrectly represents digital. When you see a typical analog waveform drawn with a "digital" stair steps superimposed that look like DC levels.... this is WRONG it doesn't exist like this.

Sorry but I studied digital signal processing and analysis in college...the whole subject has been badly dumbed down and leads to much confusion and fear of digital ( obviously a stair case is nothing remotely close to an analog waveform and hence the source of some of the malicious rumours about digital )

Digital data is sent as analog waveforms. Toslink Light is an alternating waveform as is the signal on an RCA coax or an HDMI cable. Typically all electronic devices used some form of MODEM between digital devices (Modulator and Demodulator; the digital data is encoded into some form of alternating signal often with a separate or embedded clock alternating signal to help in decoding the "states" into discrete "bits").

Aball, you are the one who first stated that the arrows were in the direction of the current! Surely, as an EE, you didn't mean that, but meant the direction of the signal.
As for the shield concept indicating the direction of the cable, well we covered that.
However, it is good to finally get an EE to set the record straight on direction of current in an AC carrying circuit.
Bob P.

What do you think the "signal" is? And don't forget Ohm's Law...

Also, talking about polarity of AC signals is not technically correct. It isn't like DC. AC signals don't have polarity per se, but rather phase angles. The actual direction depends on the relative complex values of the angles. Remember we are talking about voltage and current information for music and not a single sine wave.

Cable makers should just use a sticker or mark on the end of the cable that has shield ground and tell people that the sticker "should" go on the source side. It would cut down on the confusion the arrow causes people, but it would be more complicated to explain, so I guess they chose the easy path.

Arthur

Oh dear. Looks like most reference material(mostly from cable manufacturers) have misinterpret skin effect in digital cables. But I believe the one stated in Wikipedia is still genuine.

I've just asked one of my colleagues in the same firm who is an EE and without any hesitation said that it's DC in digital. However, when asked about "skin effect" in digital, he said he read it somewhere in the books years ago and not too sure on its function now. When asked about directionality in cables, he's not convinced at all. BTW he has only has a Sony mini compo for his audio system and not exactly an audio enthusiast.

Ryder, I think you just hit the nail on the head with one of the ongoing flaws with forums like these.

Despite the fact that electronics and physics theory have been studied, researched and set in stone for longer than most of us have been alive (and are what the design and building of all cd players, DAC's, amps etc are based on), too many audiophiles are very quick to flipantly disregard these laws because either:

1. They believe they can hear (very subjective) some difference in sound, or
2. A manufacturer of some new product who stands to profit (and let's face it, it's usually a cable of some type) makes dubious claims based on their own "research" to sell said product, and we believe them.

I totally agree we need to trust our own ears as to the sound we like (subjective again), but that can never be a reason to disregard proven electronic and physics theory, especially when some of these cables are sooo expensive.

Allowing a cable company to tell you that it's AC-carrying speaker cables are directional, or that a DC-carrying digital connection utilizes the skin effect for improved transmission is marketing baloney.

I promise to make no more posts on this thread!