Directional cables?

[bob_m_54]

15 hours ago, Cloth Ears said:

otherwise your speakers would end up full of electrons and you'd have to clean them out once in a while.

haha, in my early days ('72-'73) as a Radio Technician trainee, which was mainly valve equipment, some of the more experienced guys would spread the "dead electron" principal for valves. Basically what happens is electrons that are emitted from the Cathode, smash against the Anode and fall down dead to the bottom of the valve, gradually filling up the valve and causing it to not work as well as it should.

 

There were other more enterprising trainees that would remove the elements from a dead valve, and go around trying to sell them to some of the new recruits as valve repair kits, which would be very useful for later in the course.

[Cloth Ears]

56 minutes ago, bob_m_54 said:

haha, in my early days ('72-'73) as a Radio Technician trainee, which was mainly valve equipment, some of the more experienced guys would spread the "dead electron" principal for valves. Basically what happens is electrons that are emitted from the Cathode, smash against the Anode and fall down dead to the bottom of the valve, gradually filling up the valve and causing it to not work as well as it should.

 

There were other more enterprising trainees that would remove the elements from a dead valve, and go around trying to sell them to some of the new recruits as valve repair kits, which would be very useful for later in the course.

Sounds like the 'heavy photon' theories we proposed in physics - almost anything could be weaponised if you could just make them photons have some mass. Had a lot of people going for months...

[surprisetech]

On 23/11/2024 at 10:49 PM, billy170468 said:

Evening all,

Just wonder how/why are (most) speaker cables are directional?

Do electrons say "Nah, sorry, we are not travelling up the cable that way... turn us around"

Cheers

Andy

 

The signals passed through speaker cables are AC signals.  i.e. ALTERNATING current.  The voltage swings positive AND negative, and the current flows EQUALLY in BOTH directions.

 

You can read all the theories about wire & insulation purity & composition, manufacturing techniques, grains, etc. etc., but I have yet to see an explanation or hear for myself, how any of that can cause directionality when using the wire for AC signal transmission.

Maybe that stuff effects DC current and there can be a very small DC offset on amp outputs.  However, no cable manufacturer can predict what polarity it will be, as it is determined by the manufacturing tolerances and matching of various components in the amp.  I've never seen DC offset cited as the reason for using directional cables anyway.

IF there is any weight to the directionality theories, then it would make more sense to be using directional wire in DC power supply cables & wiring, but the marketing gurus haven't latched onto that yet!!

 

When shielding is involved, then as others have already explained, a cable may be directional depending on how the drain wire is terminated, but this has nothing to do with the characteristics of the wire.

 

 

[bob_m_54]

10 minutes ago, surprisetech said:

 

The signals passed through speaker cables are AC signals.  i.e. ALTERNATING current.  The voltage swings positive AND negative, and the current flows EQUALLY in BOTH directions.

 

You can read all the theories about wire & insulation purity & composition, manufacturing techniques, grains, etc. etc., but I have yet to see an explanation or hear for myself, how any of that can cause directionality when using the wire for AC signal transmission.

Maybe that stuff effects DC current and there can be a very small DC offset on amp outputs.  However, no cable manufacturer can predict what polarity it will be, as it is determined by the manufacturing tolerances and matching of various components in the amp.  I've never seen DC offset cited as the reason for using directional cables anyway.

IF there is any weight to the directionality theories, then it would make more sense to be using directional wire in DC power supply cables & wiring, but the marketing gurus haven't latched onto that yet!!

 

When shielding is involved, then as others have already explained, a cable may be directional depending on how the drain wire is terminated, but this has nothing to do with the characteristics of the wire.

 

 

How dare you bring science and logic into the discussion...

[Assisi]

I have many cables in my setup. I consider that most are of a relative moderate quality and some are directional including the Speaker Synergistic Research.  I always follow the arrows.  Does it provide a benefit.  I cannot say.  With Power and XLR they are directional of course.

 

With the cables that I have where there is no directionality indicated I put masking tape on each end and write In and Out when they are first connected.  From then on I always keep the cables arranged as indicated by the tape.  I do this just in case something unexplained happens and there is a benefit albeit maybe not easily detectable.  Is there a benefit I also cannot say.

 

What I can say is that cables take time to settle.  What is involved in the settling I also cannot say?  It does not overly matter to me as to the what why and how it happens.  Maybe the matter of directionality does to some extent prevail? Who knows.  I am just happy that after time I can perceive benefit.

John