I need help on directionality of speaker cables

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!

Carl109, "...studied, researched and set in stone," maybe in EE to give the engineering capability to design circuits, but in reality there are many more factors than totally explain why wire has directional attributes. If most people hear a difference between speakerwires used in one direction rather than another, what is it that explains this, especially if there is an overwhelming preference for one way rather than the other?

Omega Mikro goes to great extremes to be certain that the wire draw direction is maintained. On their power cords, the Red is with the wire draw from the wall to the IEC on the hot side and from the IEC to the wall on the neutral side. Their Blue cords are the reverse. What a small number of components show no difference whether a Red or Blue are used, many show great differences. This is with simple 60 Hz ac. Kondo is very concerned with the wire draw direction on his wire.

Such designs are not "disregarding" what electrical engineer suggests, but rather going to other concerns. There are many things that manufacturers use to help sell their products and certainly some "improvements" are baloney but some that go above and beyond simple rules of electronics have great benefit.

...but some that go above and beyond simple rules of electronics have great benefit

Tbg: for Goodness sake, you cannot go ABOVE the RULES of electronics -- nor are said rules necessarily simple.
You may go beyond the SIMPLE rules -- but that's neither here nor there.

Cheers