What do the arrows mean on my cable?

Deer creek audio through their response above was worth the effort 

kind of surprises me something as basic doesn't have a widespread consensus.  It goes back to the grounding issue, Connect the Ground on both sides of the cable or no and which one do you leave unconnected? Amazing how confusing this is.  Basic answers are so elusive.

We speak about rabbit hole but it really should be rabbit maze, good luck finding anything you looking for.

Hi, i have Arrows on my TT matt, what does this mean, also while we are here, do i put the LP on the matt, or under it, thanks for all your help, andy 🙄

Well that's interesting. Never would've guessed that it's Connected this way. 

Well that's interesting. Never would've guessed that it's Connected this way. 

Attached is an image of a typical directional RCA cable (this example is from World’s Best Cables WBC).  The idea here is that the shield collects any noise before it gets to the inner conductors. The shield is only connected at the source end, such as a preamp, and is not connected at the receiving end, such as an amplifier.  This way the shield  noise is not allowed to enter the amplifier.

Deer Creek Audio

Arrows indicate signal direction which is from source to preamp if present to amp. Usually used with analog signals not digital. Does it matter? Try it and see. If the arrows are there best to follow directions if you must choose.

Jea48, thank you for the explanation and link, always better understand the technology behind what sounds good to us. If anyone is bored and wants to read further on some of the technology, I've placed links below. It has to be no coincidence that the interconnects and speaker wires that sound best to MY ears, use similar technologies.

http://anticables.com/faq

https://anticables.com/technical

https://www.morrowaudio.com/pages/ssi-cable-technology

@vthokie83 said:

What I do know is (after break in) if I connect the cables in the opposite direction, there is an immediate degradation is sound quality.....easily noticeable, almost a haze over the sound, loss of detail, and with the speaker cables more sibilant.

From my listening experiences as well. It is said all wire that is drawn through a die is directional. Experimenting, listening to ICs made from stranded wire I could not hear any differences in changing cable direction. ICs made using solid core conductors I can hear differences when the cables are flipped end to end.

ICs cable made of solid core silver wire conductors were/are the most noticeable.

A great IC cable to experiment with to hear differences in cable directionality is Clear Day silver ICs. From my listening experience they sound best with arrow pointing to the receiving equipment.

Coax digital cables with a solid core conductor are also directional.

What I do know is (after break in) if I connect the cables in the opposite direction, there is an immediate degradation is sound quality

JMHO, the dielectric, insulation covering the wires, needs to settle in again. The signal actually travels in the dielectric and not in the conductor. The conductor wire is the guide for the electromagnetic wave that carrys the signal from the source to the receiving equipment.

Here is a picture of a coaxial cable. Note the wire conductors carry the supply voltage potential. The conductors also carry the current, (electric charge). The actual signal travel in the space between the two conductors. The dielectric, insulation.

Click on Link

Example: Power flow in a coaxial cable

V on left side of picture = applied source voltage.

I in the wire conductor = current

The Green Arrows represent the signal and the direction of the signal flow.

The signal Does Not flow back and forth. The signal energy travels in one direction from the source to the load.

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No, one again I hedged my bets. I have reasonably priced Wireworld cables. I think using ultra cheap cables such as what we used back in the 70s and 80s is probably a bad idea and elected to buy something a notch up. I did get suckered for a moderately expensive USB cable that was reviewed on ASR as being no different than the Amazon generic cable, yet it cost 5x more.

@rtorchia 

You must believe it makes some difference, since any cables that have arrows have at least some pretension to being high end.

Hook your components up with the arrows heading in the “correct” manufacturer recommended position. In the event that it actually makes an audible difference, a contentious point, all will be fine. That’s what I do, but I really don’t believe there is any difference and am just playing it safe. Come to think of it, I really don’t believe that high end cables make any difference either. 

@fuzztone thanks for that explanation. did not know that.

If you don't believe any of this and think it's snake oil, then by all means continue that thought.

Most of my analog RCAs, digital RCAs, and XLR cables are from Morrow Audio, which uses individually insulated copper strands inside of it's cables. They recommend a longer "break in" period than others, and their cables are directional.....from the signal source. These are Litz design cables.

I also have AntiCables speaker cables that are also individually coated strands of copper wire....again Litz design cables. These also have a long break in period and are directlional from amp to speakers.

I have no idea why this works, but I have had email exchanges with both Mike Morrow and Paul Speltz at AntiCables regarding this. Some of it has to do with what they refer to as "skin effect", which is above my level of understanding. What I do know is (after break in) if I connect the cables in the opposite direction, there is an immediate degradation is sound quality.....easily noticeable, almost a haze over the sound, loss of detail, and with the speaker cables more sibilant.

show me a physics textbook where wire directionality is mentioned and discussed.

Yeah… if it was not in your fourth grade physic’s text book from 60 years ago, it does not exist 😉🤦‍♂️. 

Actual measurements?

Digital interconnect...

A Transport of Delight: CD Transport Jitter

Robert Harley  |  Nov 1, 1993

 

After measuring the first two products (the PS Lambda and the Panasonic SV-3700), I went back and repeated my measurements to make sure the analyzer was giving consistent results, and that my test setup was correct. When I remeasured the SV-3700, I got about half the jitter than when I first measured it!

What caused this reduction in measured jitter?

Changing the direction of the digital interconnect between the transport and the jitter analyzer.

This phenomenon was easily repeatable: put the cable in one direction and read the RMS jitter voltage, then reverse the cable direction and watch the RMS jitter voltage drop. Although I'd heard differences in digital-cable directionality, I was surprised the difference in jitter was so easily measurable—and that the jitter difference was nearly double.

To confirm this phenomenon, I repeated the test five times each on three different digital interconnects. One was a generic audio cable, the other two were Mod Squad Wonder Link and Aural Symphonics Digital Standard, both highly regarded cables specifically designed for digital transmission. The generic cable wasn't directional: it produced the same high jitter in either direction. But both the Wonder Link and the Aural Symphonics had lower jitter levels overall, but different jitter levels depending on their direction. Moreover, the generic cable had higher jitter than either of the two premium cables—even in the latters' "high-jitter" direction.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/transport-delight-cd-transport-jitter-page-4

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@jasonbourne52  
Jason I would suggest you talk to the engineers at the manufacturers of these cables. They seem to feel they have something to talk about. If you wish to come after me I suggest you come after something that I ORIGINATED. I have spoken quite a bit about my own theories and designs. That is unless you are only exercising your typing fingers on your celliophone. Actually, show me in some Physics textbooks about Single Crystal Copper or OFC concerning conductivity. THe thing is, it's been a day or two since I have read any up-to-date physics books relative to the subject and I would doubt if there weren't some taking about this, at least in a theoretical manner.

I assumed that it was common knowledge that the arrow always points away from the source, and ultimately toward the amplifier. I have no idea if it makes a difference, but I just do it that way anyway in case it does. 

What's the fuss? If the cable has arrows, is it very hard to hook it up following those arrows? hardship much? Or put it opposite of the arrows if that's what your heart desires.

@esarhaddon : show me a physics textbook where wire directionality is mentioned and discussed. If such a property exists surely it would have been measured and quantified over the past two hundred years!

Another Karen heard from. 

Casting more nasturtiums...

@roxy54 LOL just can’t help yourself.

@jjss49 you were being a Richard to the OP. Belittling his post and called him a troll. And I am an ass for pointing out how big an ass you were to him. After he posted his explanation addressing your accusations, you are yet to admit you’re wrong. So you are here to learn and I presume teach and you only contributed by calling out the OP. 

Class. 

Have a great day you Agon Karen’s.

Thanks @jjss49. I couldn't have said it better. 

And by the way Juan, its aspersions, not dispersions. 

@juanmanuelfangioii

You two are no better than the people you cast dispersions on.

we truly don’t believe we are better than others, in fact we come here to learn and help other real users

but i suspect we are indeed better than you, in that we don’t hide behind the keyboard and play anonymous tough guy... no courage required for that... just lame

Like I said @jjss49 Who cares. Pot meet kettle you did what you accused the OP of, trolling.

@roxy54 gfys. 

Do not care if you two were here when Al Gore invented the internet. You two are no better than the people you cast dispersions on. 

Go ahead get this post deleted ladies. 

I'm sure I am not the FIRST one to mention this, but in case, Many manufacturers have discovered that the alignment in the copper atoms lines up in a way that makes them directional, Directional in how they transfer a signal the best, SO they actually mark the cables as to what direction they will operate at optimum levels.

whart,

Very interesting post.  I read about the floating shield cable design earlier in an article about a French audio writer named Jean Hiraga.  This dates back to when Monster Cable was oversized zip cord and Interlink was coaxial…before the “balanced bandwidth” design was introduced, which I guess from your post was coincident with Bruce Brisson’s arrival there.  Maybe Bruce read what I read, maybe he also took it further.

I also have heard it said that the open end should go to the component with the “lowest ground potential”, which can be determined by measurement , but your star ground discussion makes more sense…to me.

The arrows are there to help you find the ends

Poor @jjss49 pure pollution and trolling. Pot meet kettle. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

@roxy54 LOL ! No one is listening to you. Putz.

Analog audio is alternating current, the electrons are pushed and pulled down the cable for each wave of the signal. There is no overall direction, the push-pull is EXACTLY symmetrical so there are EXACTLY as many electrons travelling in one direction as the other averaged over time.

That’s a myth.

The electrons do not carry the signal. The electrons really don’t move back and forth either. They vibrate in place and hardly move at all.

The signal does not travel back and forth in the conductor from the source to the load. It travels down the wire in on direction >>>> from the source to the load in the form of an electromagnetic wave at near the speed of light, in a vacuum.

Speed of electricity - Wikipedia

Laws of Physics

The laws I want to talk about are the basic laws of electricity. I am not referring to circuit theory laws as described by Kirchhoff or Ohm, but to the laws governing the electric and magnetic fields. These fields are fundamental to all electrical activity, whether the phenomenon is lightning, ESD, radar, antennas, sunlight, power generation, analog or digital circuitry. These laws are often called Maxwell’s equations.

Utility power is electromagnetic wave energy where the wavelength is near 10 million meters. Lenses can direct light energy; waveguides can direct radar energy; and copper conductors can direct the energy at power frequencies. Thus, we direct energy flow at different frequencies by using different materials. We have learned how to control where we want the field energy to go.

 

If we accept the idea that fields carry energy in space, it must be true at all frequencies. That is the law. If it is true for light, it must also be true for 60Hz power and at DC. For utility power, the energy travels in the space between conductors, not in the conductors. This is not the picture presented by circuit diagrams, where energy seems to be carried by conductors. In digital circuits, the signals and energy travel in the spaces between traces or between traces and conducting surfaces.

Buildings have halls and walls. People move in the halls, not the walls. Circuits have traces and spaces. Signals and energy move in the spaces, not in the traces.

 

.

Electricty Misconceptions Spread By K6 Textbooks

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+1 @whart 

Analog audio is alternating current, the electrons are pushed and pulled down the cable for each wave of the signal.  There is no overall direction, the push-pull is EXACTLY symmetrical so there are EXACTLY as many electrons travelling in one direction as the other averaged over time.  This is the case for low level interconnects like RCA and also for speaker wiring.  as @whart succinctly explains, the arrow indication on some interconnects is to identify the grounded end of a cable, where only one end of a separate shield is grounded, not the current flow direction of the signal itself.

It is also necessary to pay attention to @whart's point about safety:  All equipment that is not Class II double insulated MUST be connected to the AC mains supply ground to ensure safety from electric shock, this in turn can lead to multiple grounded connections in a system, in turn setting up the conditions for a hum loop.

From time to time I have lifted the ground wire on amplifiers to treat this, which is NOT THE RIGHT WAY to deal with this.  Unless you understand electricity and the insulation Class of all your equipment you should never disconnect the ground from anything connected to the AC mains supply.

The best way to completely prevent ground loops is with transformer isolation.  You can isolate on the signal side with exotic and very expensive signal transformers, like Tamura, Hashimoto, Sowter, UTC, Lundahl and so on, or you can isolate the AC mains to the equipment (each one separately) with a common-or-garden AC isolation transformer.

In top recording studios both these methods are employed, along with balanced signal wiring.  It is not trivially easy to do this right in a complex system.  Unless you have actual hum, I would leave this topic well alone and use 'ordinary' cables grounded at both ends for interconnects.

Oh yes, he’s up there on his ivory tower always telling us what bad boys we are.

juanmanuelfangioii

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@roxy54 - gotta love it when a new keyboard tough guy, here for not even 90 days, wields the big stick

568 posts in less than 3 months is pretty darned impressive though...

Well you are an ass if you read  his post in response to your accusations.

So what did you bring to this thread? Zero.

Only one polluting and trolling is you.

The arrows are 100% marketing for the silly people.

Could be grounding protocol.

When I have shielded wires - I’ve started making my own interconnects - I ground the shield to the source.

Most manufacturers will have arrows on wires. If not, I use the writing on the wires as “arrows” having the signal follow the direction of the writing.

By the way these are monster interconnects I’m talking about. It appears there is no way to tell the difference between RCA and digital cables. Monster never labeled there cables so once the original packaging is gone it's a problem

To another point, prompted by a comment up above, I have great difficulty typing and can’t use a computer anymore because controlling the mouse and using keyboard it’s too painful. I can’t touch the screen on an iPad without feeling pain and discomfort so the only thing I can do is voice control to an iPad. This is being dictated. But still even when things are dictated they require occasional touching the screen which is difficult so I limit myself in what I can do. I would love to be able to type freely to Xpress myself more so. Thank God I can voice control the Apple TV remote because the remote is too difficult to use also,

Why do you care?

You take the time to look at his history. If it bothers you that much just roll on so he can troll on.

To many forum cops here. 

i can’t believe you guys are still responding seriously to this clown’s posts... it is inane trolling

this character has started 108 discussion threads since 'joining' in january 2021 - not responses, 108 THREADS STARTED... give me a break...

 

 

Just shows what nice guys we all are.

Well, troll or not, there is or at least was, an answer- here it is, better than I can word it-- not sure this is applicable to the current raft of cables, but

[link to post didn't work so here is plaintext:

"You are referring to a "floating shield" (one end 'floats' -- is not connected.) This is exactly to PREVENT any curent flow, which would result in hum and RFI being mixed with the audio signal (and thus winding up in your speakers!)

Having the shield connected at one end only does not prevent intercepted hum and RFI from draining to ground at the connected end.

In the old days ;~) single ended interconnects contained only one (center) conductor (+) and the shield carried the (-) signal, so it had to be connected at both ends. Then Bruce Brisson (owner of MIT cables) invented the "shotgun" single-ended interconnect while working for MonsterCable, which is what put MonsterCable on the map! It is called "shotgun" because it contains TWO signal conductors (double-barreled shotgun ;~) surrounded by a shield -- but since the shield no longer has to carry the audio signal, it can be 'grounded' at just one end, and can do its shielding job even more effectively.

Mr. Brisson provided these shotgun cables with ARROWS, which point to the end of the cable where the shield is connected to ground (no, the arrows have NOTHING TO DO WITH SIGNAL FLOW!) He did this specifically so that all interconnects could be installed with the grounded end of their shields connected to the preamp (yes, EVEN THE ONES BETWEEN THE PREAMP AND THE AMP!) That is because such a configuration is what's called 'Star Grounding' -- with the preamp at the center of the 'star'.

Star Grounding provides the quietest system; and in order to prevent ground loops, the preamp should be the ONLY component actually grounded to the wall. In the old days ;~) we generally put 'cheater plugs' on the (three prong) power cords of all other equipment, to prevent additional grounding points (which will always produce ground loops.)

Unfortunately, installing 'cheater plugs' can produce a, shock hazard if you are working on your system and remove the interconnects (and thus the ground connection) from a piece of equipment that has a cheater plug on it (for example: if you were adjusting the bias on a tube amp, which requires removing the input interconnects ;~) So be careful! Much of today's equipment (especially amplifiers) have switches on the back that allow you to 'float' (disconnect) that piece of equipment's audio circuits from ground, and thus eleminating the need for cheater plugs (the equipment's chassis is still grounded) and preventing you from accidentally electrocuting yourself!" nsgarch post regarding floating shields in the thread identified below.

be sure to plug it into the speaker the right way

i can’t believe you guys are still responding seriously to this clown’s posts... it is inane trolling

this character has started 108 discussion threads since ’joining’ in january 2021 - not responses, 108 THREADS STARTED... give me a break...

Use XLR's and you'll never have a problem wondering which end is up :-)

I thought I read that in interconnects one side can be connected to ground, which makes direction an issue. Am I making this up or is it a thing?

@yyzsantabarbara 

That makes the most sense to me. I would say reducing resettling. This has always amazed me… but fiddling around with cables requires them to “settle down”. One more thing experience teaches and no amount of thinking about it is going to get you there.