Interconnects Signal Path

I did not say that was the only reason. Just that, IME, it was usually an indication as to which side the separate shield wire was grounded to.

In my designs I have stayed away from a separate shield or drain.

Lastly I'd not be at all surprised if it does make a difference for some little known reason. If you have a favorite "directional" cable what is it, for I am always willing to try new things.

Actually, music is not a push pull thing, not where interconnects are concerned. You know, what with DC and all.
04-12-13: Geoffkait

DC?

Deep!
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?fcabl&1274104190&openusid&zz
.

I say you never know what makes a differnce so give it a try.

Even after reading all of the suggested threads I am sticking with my understanding that music is an A/C signal
which is a push than pull (both charge and current) event. I base the statement on many things but if the charge and current only traveled in one direction "D/C" than the woofers on your speakers would go to max excursion and stay there. Try tesing a raw driver with a battery which is D/C and you will see what I mean. Also if IC's have some D/C I'd like to know how it made it through the various coupling caps inside most electronics that are there on purpose to block the DC from getting to the next stage.

I do not dispute those who have a heard a difference when a wire sounds different in one direction or the other. It could have something to do with the grain of the wire. Maybe that's why there has been so much talk about OCC wire. Unless the wire is near absolute zero there is actually a lot of chaos going on in the wire as the electrons jump from ring to ring, it's my understanding that's where the heat comes from. I can imagine that in a drawn wire the chaos may be less in one direction than another, being effected by the aberations in the crystaline structure. Don't know. But I appreciate all the debate as it has opened up another area for me to pay attention to in the quest to get the most realistic music in my listening room.

Thanks, it's been enlightening.

Even after reading all of the suggested threads I am sticking with my understanding that music is an A/C signal

Yes it is. No disputing that.
.

Jjrenman,

Here is a response from Charles Hansen to a question I asked him on wire directionality. Note he really didn't have a finite opinion on cable direction but note what he said about the proper orientation of axial-leaded plastic film capacitors in his Ayre audio equipment. Yes that ac signal........

Thought it might be of interest to you.

Quote from Link below.

Question:

Charles, in the manufacture of your Hi-End equipment do you pay any attention to the directionality of hook-up wire be it signal or power wiring? Disregarding any shielding of the wire, just the wire itself.....
Do you believe wire is directional?
Thanks,
Jim

RE: Ping, Charles Hansen
Posted by Charles Hansen (M) on January 16, 2010 at 17:26:35
In Reply to: Ping, Charles Hansen posted by jea48 on January 16, 2010 at 15:32:09:

Every time that I have decided a priori that something can't *possibly* have any effect, I have always been proven wrong by listening tests at a later date. So I end up deliberately not listening to some things because I'm not sure if I want to know the answer...

I have never listened for wire directionality. I have talked with enough people I trust to believe that it is real. Some of them think that it is part of the wire itself and is created as the wire is drawn to smaller gauges through the dies. Others think that it acquires its directionality by being played in the system.

I don't really know. I'm not sure that I want to know. We don't really want to get into some strange position of trying to make products that aren't really manufacturable or would end up costing twice as much to make as they do now.

~~~~~~~~~~

Please note that this is a completely different topic than RCA interconnect cables that are directional due to the way they are manufactured. In the old days everyone just used coax and one end was the same as the other. Now most companies use a twin-ax conductor that is the same that they use for a balanced XLR cable. Then there are *two* grounds. One is the shield and one is the internal ground wire right next to the hot wire.

Typically the internal ground wire is connected at both ends, but the shield is only connected at one end. Reversing the direction of these cables will determine to which component the shield is connected and will certainly make an audible (and possibly measurable) difference.

~~~~~~~~~

Finally, it should be noted that we *do* orient all of our axial-leaded plastic film capacitors. When the capacitor is wound, one of the leads will be connected to the outside conductor and the other lead will be connected to the inside conductor. Orienting the capacitor in the circuit properly makes a difference in the sound quality.

It took us a while to figure out how, but we built a machine that allows us to tell which end of the capacitor is which. It is a pain, but we sort every single capacitor and mark it for the correct orientation at each point in the circuit. If we had to *listen* to every capacitor to determine the correct polarity, I don't think anybody could afford to buy our products...

http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/general/messages/55/558658.html