Directional interconnect cables

Some "ordinary cables" are indeed directional, but only as it relates to the ground. Do what your cable maker says. They are NOT consistant from maker to maker.

Dave

Point the arrow toward a common ground (usually the pre-amp or integrated amp). It's not showing the direction of signal, but the ground.

You may or may not hear a difference, depending on the freedom from 60-cycle noise in your system.

Dave

Yes, check with your manufacturer. On some the arrrows will only serve to connect them consistantly if they're undone or moved. If there is no grounding theme, then the electrons don't give a rip which way they run; however, once the cable is burned-in, then the dielectric sets into a charge that will impact the sound of the cable, which is probably 90% of the "burn-in" effect. While even touching it or moving it can impact the charge, reattaching consistantly will reduce the time needed to settle in.

Analysis Plus and several other makers do indeed ground at one end. For these it's important to attach to a common ground.

Dave

07-27-08: Mofimadness said:
"I totally agree with Narrod. This is the correct orientation of directional cables"

Maybe you missed the rest of the thread. It can vary by maker, so you need to find out from the maker.

Dave

I should say, the common ground comments are only relevent to unbalanced interconnects. It's not an issue with balanced and you may connect most either way.

Going "with the flow" when your ICs are meant to have a common ground would generally be a mistake. Whether it costs you SQ or not will depend a lot on the grounding of your system and house in general.

So, to sum up, with balanced ICs it will not matter, but with unbalanced you should do as your manufacturer advises.

Dave

"Either way", it doesn't matter where the ground is, smartee.

Dave

Another explaination of perceived directionality is the dielectric settling into a charge. If you reverse the connection then you'll hear an immediate deterioration that'll go away if your put them back like they were. However, if the dielectric charge is the cause, then if you leave it in the system long enough to "burn-in" again, then the preferable direction will reverse. If this is the explaination, then the arrows only serve to allow for consistent, repeatable connection.

This also can explain directionality in speaker cables and why elevating cables with insolators can improve sound.

I personally don't think that the copper crystals care at all which way the electrons flow. (In speaker cables they're going both ways, BTW). However, I have observed how changing the direction of a cable is heard.

Jeff Rowland told me and some others that he thinks that dielectric charges explains most of what we observe in equipment burn-in.

Dave

I generally agree with his comment:

"Reverse a wire and it takes a couple of days of use in the reversed direction for the wire to settle in and sound its best. This settling-in improvement is smaller in magnitude than the difference in sound from running the wire backwards, so you can tell immediately upon reversing a wire if it is in the best direction or not."

Except that I believe the whole thing can be explained by the dielectric charge. I "burn-in" my ICs and cables a couple of hundred hours and try to minimize the amount that I move them, so if I reverse one it's going to take more than a couple of days to recharge.

Just a theory. Unfortunately, most of this can't be measured, so no one that I know of has compared one directionality vs. another with sufficient burn-in between changing directions to neutralize the direction change.

If we believe it takes hundreds of hours for cables and ICs to perform at their potential, then any time we change direction we need to give the same amount of time before a comparison is valid, IMHO.

Dave

How do you remove the dielectric effect???

Did you burn them in each time that you changed direction? What about the charge in the insulation (it's a dielectric)? I suspect that if you burn them in after each directional change, then you will have reversed directionality.

Dave