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Another look at directionality in cables

A friend of mine and myself were discussing this subject. It was brought up, if a cable is directional, why would both arrows on the positive and negative point the same direction. It appeared that, for example, that the positive would point from the amp to the speaker and the negative should point from the speaker to the amp ( even though there is no positive and negative using AC-reference only for phasing). This way, since the signal alternates, that at least the signal would be going back and forth on the wire in the same direction at any given time(maybe.) I have discussed with engineers about wire and most agree that it does have a (marginally better at best) flow in one direction depending on frequency and wire structure. All agreed it was not significant.
My friend tried it and said he got better results with one wire going one way and the other reversed---go figure. Of course with some wire, you do not have this option with it.
Opinions?
bigtee

Showing 1 response by bigtee

bigtee OP
803 posts
 
Actually, what I was refering to was a set of speaker cables where you have an individual conductor to each speaker terminal from the amp. Instead of having + and - wires in one jacket, you have a + wire and a - wire such as Tara Labs uses. For a single run to each speaker, you have 2 individual conductors isolated from each other in their on jacket. Tara marks there's with an arrow on each wire. My question is why would you run each conductor in the same direction as Tara indicates? They show no reference to which wire goes to which terminal. They give you 4 wires, each having an arrow. It appears that(using Sean's theory, which is correct) you would want one wire going one way and the other pointed the other way. This would only be possible with speaker wire because interconnect actual use a single center conductor(s) with the other wire or shield to ground. When you have both wires in a single jacket, I wonder how the manufactures actually orient them in respect to flow using the "U" theory Sean spoke of? The power starts at one point heading one direction (first half cycle) on the positive lets say, goes threw the speaker coil(s) and returns on the negative. As the example shows, one arrow should point towards the speaker and one the other way. Not both the same direction. It then reverses direction for the other half cycle. As the example shows, one arrow should point towards the speaker and one the other way. Not both the same direction. RED >>>>>>>>>>>SPEAKER COIL>>>>>>>>>>BLACK then reverses RED <<<<<<<<<<< SPEAKER COIL <<<<<<<<<< BLACK
The black and red represent the amp terminals and connected to like on the speaker. Hope you follow what I'm trying to say.
Also, one quick note. It would seem that Harmonic Technology and Acoustic Zen would have something on the ball with single crystal wire. I think this would eliminate a lot of the effects of electrical flow and break in Sean refers to.
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