I've been offered posh speaker cables that 'will transform my system', expensive of course and marked with direction arrows so you are supposed to put them pointing from the amp to the speaker. What a load of tosh - passing power down a wire is essentially pushing an electron or two down one wire, it passing through the load and it popping back down the other - imagine a line of pennies, push one in this end, one drops off the other. Audio signals are by their nature alternating current - just as many electrons travel 'clockwise' as 'counterclockwise' through the circuit and the conductor will behave exactly the same no matter what the direction, so how on earth can the cables direction have any influence? - Let's have some intelligent responses based on sound arguments, not unquantifiable rubbish about it sounding better.
There are two reasons why cables are (or are claimed to be) directional. Some interconnects are constructed in such a way that the electrostatic screen is connected at only one end. Depending on what equipment that end is connected to, pick-up of interference may vary. The usual advice is to plug the cable so that the end where the screen is connected is the 'sending' end - eg the CD player when the cable runs from CD to preamp, and so on. The cable will often be marked with arrows indicating the 'signal flow' in accordance with this.
In other cases the cable is of identical construction at each end but the manufacturer still claims that it is directional due to some aspect of manufacture. This is questionable in the extreme from a technical point of view but many audiophiles swear they can hear a difference (even with cables that aren't claimed to be directional). Anyway, in this case or with unsymmetric construction cables it can still be worth trying the 'wrong' way, which may in some cases be preferred. (With thanks to our cable guru, Richard Black)
The point about screens I could agree with but for the fact that the interference picked up by a speaker cable would usually be microvolts, very small compared to the signal from the amp - Proof? - turn the amp off and see if you can hear any noise coming out of the speakers, although I grant you that nearby sources of high strength rf can be a problem (radio hams and the like), so why screen the cables anyway other than to dupe the poor, unsuspecting and once rich customer out of their pennies? The second point falls inevitably into the category of subjective assessment, and I have yet to see a properly conducted blind test with a statistically viable sample of listeners that proves there is a difference. My criteria for evaluating these subtle differences? If you can walk into the room and hear the difference, it was worth it. If you can't, save your money. Sorry to be so negative but this sort of smoke and mirrors mysticism falls into the same category as snake oil.
Fair point PC. I have to say it's not something I'm fully convinced about myself and would be very wary of investing money in. I do however know several people (besides manufacturers and marketeers for these sorts of products) who claim they can make a difference. As you say, that's entirely subjective, and could be due to entirely different reasons to the ones professed, but as ever, you don't know until you try, and really, you should never buy before you try.
Despite my degree in electrical engineering saying it should't, in my experience cables, both audio or video, are directional & do sound significantly better one way round compared to the other. It isn't just esoteric high cost cables (or systems either) all are affected
sorry to be picky, however i would like to take issue with the original premise that: "passing power down a wire is essentially pushing an electron or two down one wire, it passing through the load and it popping back down the other - imagine a line of pennies, push one in this end, one drops off the other". er, no it's not actually.
The path of a typical electron through a wire could be described as a rather chaotic, zigzag path characterized by collisions with fixed atoms. Each collision results in a change in direction of the electron. Yet because of collisions with atoms in the solid network of the metal conductor, there are two steps backwards for every three steps forward. also how far each electron travels forward in, say, an hour, is not very far at all (electron drift).
so what's my point? well basically if you simplify the problem to such an extent (pushing pennies)then it ceases to have any meaning and thus becomes impossible to discuss in any constructive way.
do i think cables are directional? hell i don't know, but i'm not about to go against the manufacturer's recommendation. cos he might just be right.
Other than the possible grounding of any shield at one end, of course it makes no difference which way a speaker cable is fitted. As you say, audio is essentially an AC signal anyway, so how could it make any difference?
In my view as a professional elecrtronics engineer, it seems there is a lot of hype over cables and the manufacturers must be laughing their heads off all the way to the bank.
It makes no difference which way a cable points, nor does it matter if they're made of gold, silver, copper or baking foil! As long as they are capable of carrying the current without significant voltage drop and niether the inductance nor capacitance is excessive, they will all do the same job provided the connectors are of reasonable quality.
They'll be recommending silver cored, directional power cables for electric cookers next, claiming it makes the sunday roast taste better!!!
"I've been offered posh speaker cables that 'will transform my system"
If that is even vaguely accurate, the folks offering them will easily be able to determine when the cable is the right way round. Will they accept an offer of 20 trials, with the cable direction for each trial being randomly orientated according to the toss of a coin?
If the cables (when used correctly) really represent such a huge transformation, then they will have no trouble achieving at least 18 accurate answers.
What a load of b*****ks, all this talk about cable direction is complete bunkum, there may be some opinions about screening but there is nothing to even vaguely suggest that a speaker cable has a 'right way' round, a notion like this is about as absurd as the concept of 'BURN IN' for a cable, a complete lie, a complete load of nonsense, a complete waste of time, if you wish to understand the properties of materials then read the PHYSICS books, study the materials, then you may understand that there is no mechanism for burn in nor any reason for it to occur, one cannot change the characteristics of a metal, like copper, by passing a signal down it. Therefore 'burn in' is a complete 'non starter' and a sales hype like no other, this I believe to be one of the biggest lies the planet has ever witnessed. Apart from the official report of the 911 collapse, but that is another story.
Dave Oliver, I like the changes to your reply system, appears to work well.
However I would also like to meet your 'cable guru' Richard Black as I would like a serious talk over his beliefs and reasons for his beliefs, how anyone serious in life can even be a 'cable' guru beggars belief, but if that is what he believes then so be it.
However if he can prove what he suggests then I will listen, and I will respect his judgement, and maybe I would change my 'point of view' so perhaps he will E-Mail me and we could meet and discuss this matter.
All this talk about physics, electrons, pushing pennies smoke & mirrors - one guy even wants to see? " I have yet to see a properly conducted blind test.......that proves there is a difference"
God gave most of us the finest of equipment to judge sounds by, our ears not our eyes!
I seriously wonder if anyone in this thread has actually sat down & done the following.
Listen to your system as it is.
Reverse say the interconnect between CD player & pre-amp
Listen again
One way round you should here sound that is less hi-fi, more natural with better bass & sweeter treble. The other doesn't
Try the same thing with the scart/hdmi cable on your telly. Again one direction will give a better picture with more natural saturated colour & sound
Here's something really controversial I can hear when the a 13 amp fuse in the system is the wrong way round!
Your having a laugh!!! What happens if the elecricity company fit the sub-station fuses the wrong way???
The power supply lead/mains fuse carry NO audio frequencies unless the smoothing capacitors in your amplifier are dead, so how can it affect the sound quality if no audio flows through it??
Provided your equipment receives more or less the correct voltage at more or less 50/60Hz from a supply of sufficiently low impedance then it doesn't make a scrap of difference how it gets there!!
I think a lot of people hear what they want to hear
"Here's something really controversial I can hear when the a 13 amp fuse in the system is the wrong way round!"
Are you willing to try the test I described earlier? The fuse will be placed one way round or the other, 20 times, corresponding with the random toss of a coin? The confidence professed in the above quote should make it easy for you to score way above the 50% accuracy that the laws of chance would allow for.
Pluto, there seems to me, no other branch of physics or science or interest that elicits so much complete nonsense as the ramblings of Hi Fi enthusiasts.
Hi Fi reproduction is science and physics, it is not magic, get your numbers right, then your sound will be right.
An A.C. signal traveling along a totally symetrical lead, knows nothing of the lead, the start or the end. If the lead was not identical in both directions then it would create harmonic distortion, as it proveably does not, then direction can not exist in any whey shape or form.
In reply to Chistopher Harnett
Some manufacturers say that their cables don't start directional but assume directionality after burn in.
So how can that be, what happens to a cable after 'burn in' why aren't all cables 'burnt in' before being sold. I notice that Russ Andrews offers a high speed burn in option, at a price, how you would ever know is beyond me!
As I always remembered the term 'burn in', to mean an item of equipment was powered up and run to discover any potential failures, and to check it's final temperature etc. it never had any connection with the final operation, or the sound quality.
If your house is re-wired, do the appliances not work at their best until the cables have 'burnt in' does a new phone line not sound good for the first couple of hundred hours, because the cable has not 'burnt in'
NO OF COURSE NOT, such is the complete nonsense of burn in, at least in relation to cables. I'll agree that speakers need to 'run in', a turntable needs to 'run in' just the same as a new car engine needs to 'run in'.
So answers on a postcard please - any other interests that elicit a similar degree of complete NONSENCE, I would be happy to reaserch them as well.
