Curious How These Nordost Speaker Cables Do What They Do

Apparently current travels very slowly, the drift velocity of electrons being what, about 80 cm per hour. Thus the net velocity of current back and forth is zero. Also apparently, voltage is an electromagnetic field that has no velocity only direction, alternating with the current. Or maybe is does have velocity, maybe it’s a wave, it does not matter for this argument.

Thus, as regards the argument of fuse or wire directionality in AC circuits, it certainly appears that one should not care about the “relative audibility” of either current/voltage when they are traveling away from the speakers/amplier. One should only care about the relative audibility of current/voltage when they are traveling in the direction toward the speakers/amplifier. This is why the direction of fuses and wire in general is audible in AC circuits as well as DC circuits. In other words, it’s an old wives tale that fuses or cables cannot be “directional” in AC circuits. This also explains why all Audioquest cables AND power cords are “controlled for directionality,” even the tiny strands that comprise the conductors of their new power cords.

Eggs Ackly! Not only that, for typical and ubiquitous very high purity conductors the amount of the impurities is inconsequential. One millionth. Besides, if Nordost’s theory of directionality were true then fuses would exhibit the same phenomenon. But they don’t! That Nordost theory is actually what HiFi Tuning’s theory was, a long time ago - that wire directionality was dertermined by the break in process.  But now HiFi Tuning understands that the manufacturing process determines the directionality of fuses (and wire in general).

Well, Nordost is certainly all wet on their explanation of cable directionality. Maybe Nordost should pay closer attention to how Audioquest controls wire directionality.

“Are Nordost cables directional?
Yes, Nordost cables are directional. This is especially true for single ended (RCA) interconnects as the shield is connected at the source or output end only.”

>>>>But what about their unshielded cables? Why do they have arrows?

“Which way do directional arrows point on Nordost cables?
The directional arrows always point away from the source. For example, from a CD player to an amplifier, the arrows should point towards the preamplifier or power amplifier. On a speaker cable the arrows would always point towards the loudspeaker.”

>>>>>>If cables have no directionality when they are manufactured then why have arrows, unless all Nordost cables are shielded, including speaker cables? (Apparently, from what I can tell Nordost speaker cables are unshielded.)

“How can cables be directional?
When cables are manufactured they do not have any directionality. However, as they break in, they acquire directionality. Although the cable signal is an alternating current, small impurities in the conductor act as diodes allowing signal flow to be better in one direction over time. This effect is also called quantum tunneling, w hich has been observed in experiments over 25 years ago. Regardless of the purity of the metal used, there are still diode effects in all conductors. In addition, the insulation material will change when it is subjected to an electrical field.”

Editor comment: Yikes!