jeffbij +1
Glad to see a rational, informed posting here. I mean, "sentiency"??
Yes, I’m sure you’re absolutely correct in stating that grain structure has a lot to do with directionality. I once had a long conversation on the topic with a figure no less formidable than Garth Powell (the brilliant enginner who designed Audioquest’s Niagara power-conditioning line, among other things) and he went into the physics of grain directionality in great depth. I have a degree in Physics myself, so this was far from an exercise in hand-waving. Garth made sense, and although there’s no way to measure the effect quantitatively in a particular cable product, the physical phenomenon undoubtedly does exist in cables that have certain manufacturing steps -- like Audioquest's directional cables. I walked away from that discussion thoroughly convinced -- and I’m not an easy person to bamboozle when it comes to voodoo engineering.
Related: Someday, maybe I’ll post a thread about my experience deciphering the design details of Synergistic’s HFT products, those bizarre little shirt-button-sized bits of metal that, when pasted around your listening room, are supposed to improve transparency and imaging. Now, THAT’s an interesting story.