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Interconnect Directionality

Have I lost my mind? I swear that I am hearing differences in the direction I hook up my interconnect cables between my preamp and power amp. These are custom built solid core silver cables with Eichmann bullet plugs. There is no shield so this is not a case where one end of the cable’s shield is grounded and the other isn’t. 

There are four ways ways to hook them up:
Right: Forward. Left: Forward. 
Right: Backward. Left: Backward
Right: Forward. Left: Backward
Right: Backward. Left: Forward. 

There is no difference in construction between forward and backward, but here are my observations:

When they are hooked up forward/backward there appears to be more airy-ness and what appears to be a slight phase difference. When hooked up forward/forward or backward/backward, the image seems more precise like they are more in phase. The difference between forward/forward and backward/backward is that one seems to push the soundstage back a little bit while the other brings it towards you more. 

What could possibly cause this? Does it have something to do with the way the wire is constructed and how the grains are made while drawn through a die? Am I imagining this? Have I completely lost my mind?
mkgus

Showing 3 responses by pragmasi

pragmasi
212 posts
 
Going back to the OP's original post, I think there might be a rational argument for the difference in perceived sound.
If the cables aren't shielded then you're running a couple of antennas that will be highly sensitive to external interference so small changes in position will result in differences in quality (like when you unplug them and turn them around). If you flip a coin three times and it comes up heads then you might think that the coin has a bias toward landing tails side down.
The impact of the interconnect on sound reproduction can be down to the capacitance, inductance, shielding and quality of contact at each end. There is a possibility that the interconnects find a better contact one way round rather than the other so that might be something else to consider.
From all of this discussion I think the impact of running unshielded interconnects has monumentally more impact than easing the flow of electrons through a conductor. I prefer to use balanced interconnects of a modest cost that cancel out most of that interference at the receiving end... and that's what recording and mastering studios prefer to do as well.
pragmasi
212 posts
 



A coax cable is a shielded cable.

Yes that's correct… I was referring to the original post that says

There is no shield so this is not a case where one end of the cable’s shield is grounded and the other isn’t.

and my comment is that in most home environments running low level signals through unshielded wire is likely to have a far more detrimental effect than the direction of the wire.

Personally I don't believe that the direction of the cable has any impact on the quality of the sound reproduced at the loudspeaker. However everyone is entitled to their own beliefs and I won't try to change yours.

In my experience the capacitance of the cable (inherent in coax design) can effect the high frequency response due to the voltage divider it creates with the input impedance of the amplifier. As long as the capacitance is small enough then this will be above the range of human hearing. If you know the input impedance of your amplifier and the capacitance of the cable you can calculate what this will be and in most cases it won't be a problem.

Personally I prefer to use balanced interconnects as the chassis ground is separate from the signal ground (which doesn't get passed at all) and common mode interference is cancelled out when the cold signal is subtracted from the hot.

pragmasi
212 posts
 
I'm not sure if any so called hi-end cable manufacture uses shielding in
their speaker cables. I'm pretty sure AQ doesn't. I do know the Clear Day
Shotgun and Double Shotgun speakers cables don't.
Making speaker cables with shields is probably not a good idea, too much capacitance in the Power Amp load can make the output stage oscillate. Shielding is used in the interconnects to make sure interference doesn't get amplified with the signal, the amplified signal in the speaker wire is a high enough voltage for most, if not all interference to be lost in the noise floor.
To clarify, the interconnects in my example have no shield at all. Just 3 solid-core wires (1 signal and 2 for return) with cotton insulation on each wire hand twisted together.  Connectors are eichmann bullets.
Thanks for clarifying, that's what I thought you meant. If you want to take the experiment further you may want to test the interconnects further up the signal chain assuming your preamp has some gain. You'd hear the differences clearer also if you experiment with them between a turntable and MC/MM amplifier, the additional gain and RIAA equalisation would certainly highlight mains interference as well as testing to see whether the perceived effect of directionality increases.

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