Speaker Cable directionality: reversable??

Bob-b---That is exactly why I said there are a "few" engineering reasons why wire is directional. Any electrical or electronics engineer will tell you there is a difference in flow direction (as in a direction) depending on how the wire is made. However, most manufacturers will also tell you to try it both ways and see if you hear a change. Personally, since flow is AC, I'm still a little foggy on why this would be the case since you have flow in one direction on the positive half cycle and flow in the opposite on the negative half cycle. It would be easy to comprehend this if it were a DC current going in one direction. However, it is not. So how can you have directionality? Speaker wire is no different than lamp cord other than composition. In AC circuits, you have a positive and a neutral for less than 120V. Power flows through the speaker coil to the common(neutral) and back through in the opposite direction just like any AC load. Lamp cord under this theory would be directional but I haven't seen any arrows on lamp cords as of yet. Maybe the bulbs would last longer if we got the direction right. I would just like for somebody to explain in plain English why there would be a difference. I do buy into the actual wire being directional to flow but apply this to an AC circuit.

Okay, I'll take a stab at it. If the wire is drawn thru the die in such a way as to align the molecules so that electicity flows better in one direction than the other, as Bob B. so eloquently point out, then it has a "phasing" orientation, just like a speaker does. A speaker operates on AC, but it is clearly marked + and - for phasing. Perhaps the wire is molecularly oriented to better carry the signal in the "drive" direction, and less oriented to go in the "reverse" direction. This could have some effect on "back EMF" generated into the amp, by the drivers, because the + terminal is connected to the amp's output device, and the - terminal is connected to ground. And it could also have some effect on the perceived "speed" of the cable on transient response.

How does that sound for a theory?

Put on Beatles record. If you hear 'Paul is dead', your wires are reversed.:)

what is the theory about which way the wire was drawn anyway, does the wire become like a diode?

steve

I hope the same amount of power (w = v x a) travels both ways. Phase has nothing to do with power flow. It is simply an orientation to keep both speakers going the same direction or the power flow in the left is moving the same direction with the speaker in the right. I use Tara labs that use separate wires (completely, no common jacket-8 wires for biwiring)) for pos and neg. Both of them have arrows on them. Which one would go where because the power is not going the same direction down both wires and any given time. I personally think on speaker cables that this is a bunch of crap. I will continue to speak out against this until someone can prove how it will make a difference on AC.

Oleander: Just turn your wires around and don't worry about the arrows. It won't make a whit of difference. (It can't: The signal flows in both directions.)