Directional wires/cables

@stevencason Agreed. A floating shield is usually totally floating ie. not grounded at either end (just a terminolgy/interpretation thing I guess), and in this case I can’t see why direction of installation would matter.

A single-end-grounded cable might sound different if installed a different way round because of where any RFI noise picked up by the shield drains to. To my mind and in my experience, this is the only directionality which matters. I’ve never understood or experienced directionality in the conductors themselves.

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.

cundare2. Do Tell!!

Electrical energy movement (120V power to home, audio power to speakers, etc) is just energy transfer by electrons inside the metal wires! Really not matter with any structure of the matals in the wires! 

Please, do not incline to the non-scientific rationale of the BS manufacturers. If you have not studied chemistry, it is very easy for you to listen and believe the non-scientific retionales. I am a PhD of chemistry (retired). I did research to find molecular structure of organic componds using very expensive analytical instruments. It is very sad for not-science-oriented people to spend money for the expensive audio wires! I really hate the manufacturers of the BS stuff.  

a lot of misinformation here backed up by sites that have misinformation. Basic physic classes sometimes use the electron flow model as a simple way to explain things, but they are simply wrong.

The AC signal that is transferring energy from the source to the load (amp to speaker for example) is NOT doing so by moving electrons from the source to the load. Electrons are NOT flowing down the wire like water through a hose.

Think about it..

The energy will flow through a capacitor which has an insulator in the middle of it. How do the electrons flow through an insulator? 

The energy can travel through a vacuum where there are no electrons, think radio waves.

High frequency AC  waves are commonly sent down tubes called waveguides which are hollow = no conductor = no electrons.