What do the arrows mean on my cable?


And how do I tell the difference between a digital cable and an RCA cable, they look the same.

Are the ones with the arrows more likely to be RCA for analog connections?

jumia

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. 

@rtorchia 

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

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.

@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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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