Cable directionality

Audioengr-
I appreciate your information and trust me, I will get a handle on the "Why." I think we have been engineers for about the same length of time. I graduated a ME in 1975. I didn't learn much about electricity in school and have been in industrial design for a long time. We have electrical guys in our group that handle the biggest portion of the electrical work, naturally. I do design air conditioning control systems working closely with general contractors. I have always understood the codes and the wiring requirements but never researched the "Why." I guess now is a good time to start. I have been playing with audio equipment since I was about 12. Never had any electronic training but understand how it works somewhat. I have built some really decent sounding interconnects but don't have a clue to why they turn out as they do. I have played around with the metals and the shield schemes. I have found, keep them as short as possible and for whatever reason, I find solid wire better than stranded. I have never been able to detect any direction inconsistancies in the wire.

Here are some more tips for you, since I design wires for my company:

1) interconnects should be low capacitance - this means spiraled pairs of small gauge wire that are spaced-away form each other. Use Teflon or air-filled dielectrics to separate and insulate them.

2) Speaker cables should be low inductance and low resistance. To get low inductance, you need coupling, so make many twisted-pairs of 20-24 gauge wire and then connect then at the ends to for a single circuit.

I had a breakthough, The arrows (directionality notation)are so you can see which way the signal goes when you are wading through your orgy of interconnects behind your AV rack without having to trace each one back to where it comes from or goes to.

-Phil

Works for me....

Audioengr, if I may sidebar and ask a few general questions about things electrical:

1. I current have a 115 volt 20 amp dedicated circuit to my amplifier and the ground has been lifted. I have the schematic and instructions on how to convert my amp to 230 volts. If I install the proper 20 amp duel circuit at the service panel and connect my rewired 230 volt amplifier by simply running two leads (using my currently installed 10/2 romex and obviously from opposing sides at at the service panel), would I need a ground? I know I should always have a ground but I am not using one right now. But all's I need for 230 volts is two 115v lines from opposing phases?

2. If your answer to number one is yes, then why does a 20 amp or 30 amp cooktop or oven have two leads, 1 neutral, in addition to the ground? What's with the second lead in these appliances? Or is it the neutral I should be asking about?

3. You say that the neutral contains the return current as I've heard this many times. But why is it that I can touch my neutral bus in the service panel and not feel a thing? What is different about 'return current'?

-Sparky