Directional interconnect cables


I see several big-name interconnect vendors mark directional arrows on the outer jacket of the cables.

How is it that a wire can be directional? It's a simple electrical conductor, how is it possible for it to be directional, to sound "better" when connected in one direction vs. the other? This does not make sense to me, perhaps someone here can explain how this can possibly be so...
lupinthe3rd
Showing my ignorance here, but if analog audio signals are AC, how is there any directionality at all apart from shielding ground?

Showing common sense. IMHO. Wires are not diodes. It doesn't matter which way round they go. Shield ground point can have an effect.
By running the wires in air. This was achieved with some difficulty of course, but nevertheless achieved. No shield and no dielectric apart from air. The two components were faced back to back, the wire connecting the RCAs was very high purity silver, 24AWG on cold and 26AWG on hot, and then tensioned so that the wires ran in parallel througn the air with no insulation used. With the wire concerned, once it had been burned in, reversing it resulted in a change in sound, most particularly a loss of openness in the treble, and loss of firmness in the bass; a sound very similar to what an identical set that had not been burned in sounded like.
Did you burn them in each time that you changed direction? What about the charge in the insulation (it's a dielectric)? I suspect that if you burn them in after each directional change, then you will have reversed directionality.

Dave
The experiments used bare wire, the only insulation being air. Yes, the cables could be burned in after a while in the changed direction. People find it easier to ascribe directionality to the dielectric, and I have not attempted to prove or disprove that the dielectric is part of the issue, yet. But I have proved to myself that when wire burns in then it gets some form of directional quality to it. I don't know why this should be, and that would be a very interesting thing to know, but I don't have access to the kinds of research funds to find out. At the level I work I am happy to just accept it as an insight and work with it, and I was able to afford the funds to buy an Audiodharma cooker. One of the things I can say from experiments conducted is that high conductor purity diminishes the burn in issue and directionality issue markedly. High purity alloys of suitable metals are also fine. It is when metals are contaminated with oxides, sulphides etc that directionality and burn in issues are most severe.