Do you guys believe in cable directionality?

[avliner]

It seems hard to me to believe that if you plug any AV cable towards the right direction (following the arrow direction, kinda one-way street though), you'll have an improved AV performance overall.

Please tell me that this is another "snake oil endless bs" though.
Below you'll find some comments about this:

http://www.russandrews.com/article-Truth-or-Myth-Cable-Directionality-russdirectionality.htm

 

[markw]

Only as far as grounding goes.

The arrow points away from the grounded RCA shield and towards the lifted one. In some cases this might make a difference as far as noise/hum goes but I've never encountered this in a home situation.

As for directionality of the signal affecting it's sound goes, well....

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I believe in Roger Russel
http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm

 

[avliner]

I do believe in Roger Russel either and it seems he doesn't believe in fairy tales al all

Tell you what; if you get a digital Ohmmeter and measure the wire's continuity in full, I'm sure you'll get the very same results from left to right and vice-versa though. If I'm wrong on my assumption, just let me know

 

[TLS Guy]

It seems hard to me to believe that if you plug any AV cable towards the right direction (following the arrow direction, kinda one-way street though), you'll have an improved AV performance overall.

Please tell me that this is another "snake oil endless bs" though.
Below you'll find some comments about this:

http://www.russandrews.com/article-Truth-or-Myth-Cable-Directionality-russdirectionality.htm

I can assure the electrons do not care whether they move to orbit of the atomic nucleus to the left, right, above or below. One nucleus is as good as another.

The guy who wrote that nonsense probably does not know what an electron is, how it flows in a conductor. In fact he does not the first clue about atomic structure.

What he is doing is putting on display, the glaring deficiencies in our educational system for the whole world to see.

I imagine there are teenagers in Korea for instance, who laugh their heads of at that garbage on the Internet. Then say to themselves, "Americans are really stupid, we will do fine, and it will be easy to compete against those dopes."

 

[Halon451]

What he is doing is putting on display, the glaring deficiencies in our educational system for the whole world to see.

Or, what he is doing is what a lot of other companies out there are doing and merely capitalizing on such deficiencies in the public's knowledge and understanding of technical science as it pertains to consumer products such as these. Snake oil peddlers exist for one reason - to make money from schleps who are otherwise ignorant that their product works the magic it's intended to do. "Directionality" in a cable... I had to stifle a laugh at this. The ONLY thing I could see where directional arrows might come into play has already been stated, in indicating which end of a cable you may have a shield lifted, but like markw said, you rarely see this in a typical home environment. And at that, an arrow seems like a strange way to indicate such applications.

Electricity 101: A signal passes from a source through the path of least resistance. It doesn't care which direction on the cable it is going, and I can assure you the conductor on which it is being carried doesn't give a rat's a** either. The only principle that matters is establishing a difference in potential, which induces current flow, and which end of said cable is high or low.

 

[j_garcia]

For an unbalanced cable directionality almost makes sense, though as mentioned, I am not entirely sure why it would make a difference which direction the cable went to the unconnected wire/shield. To claim the direction makes a difference in any other instance is literally retarded.

 

[avliner]

For an unbalanced cable directionality almost makes sense...

Could you please elaborate on that "almost"?

 

[highfigh]

Electricity 101: A signal passes from a source through the path of least resistance. It doesn't care which direction on the cable it is going, and I can assure you the conductor on which it is being carried doesn't give a rat's a** either. The only principle that matters is establishing a difference in potential, which induces current flow, and which end of said cable is high or low.

OTOH, if we're dealing with DC and a difference in potential exists, it can remain that way for a long time.

I still want to know where the electrons go after they leave my toaster. (Scientific American article)

 

[highfigh]

It seems hard to me to believe that if you plug any AV cable towards the right direction (following the arrow direction, kinda one-way street though), you'll have an improved AV performance overall.

Please tell me that this is another "snake oil endless bs" though.
Below you'll find some comments about this:

http://www.russandrews.com/article-Truth-or-Myth-Cable-Directionality-russdirectionality.htm

The only cables I know of that actually have arrows on them are Monster Cables and since I have purged all of their marketing BS from my brain, I think they're trying to make a quasi-balanced shielding arrangement, which is basically a shielded twisted pair where the shield is terminated only on the device that's not the source. As long as this has RCA jacks that are at chassis potential, the shield will work as planned. Otherwise, it acts as an antenna fro noise. Twisted pair works well on its own- adding a shield helps in high RF areas but it's basically useless otherwise.

I don't believe in cable directionality but I do connect them so the sound always goes downhill. That way, it's like it funnels down to the amplifier.

 

[j_garcia]

Could you please elaborate on that "almost"?

All I meant by that is, it makes sense to have one end that isn't connected, but as I said, why would it matter which end wasn't connected?

 

[Halon451]

OTOH, if we're dealing with DC and a difference in potential exists, it can remain that way for a long time.

I still want to know where the electrons go after they leave my toaster. (Scientific American article)

Well yes - as long as a difference in potential exists, thereby explaining the relationship between voltage and current in any given scenario, whether low level signal applications or power line transmissions, it doesn't matter. AC or DC the concept is still the same. Again Electricity 101. Wait, they do make conductors that transmit a signal in one direction only... they're called diodes.

 

[TLS Guy]

Could you please elaborate on that "almost"?

If the proposition were to be remotely true, it would turn atomic and particle physics on it head.

There is no need to waste more time on this thread. By keeping it going we will just provide entertainment to studious Korean and Indian high school students who might happen to wander into the site. Almost all of ours will not see the point or the argument I'm afraid.

 

[highfigh]

Well yes - as long as a difference in potential exists, thereby explaining the relationship between voltage and current in any given scenario, whether low level signal applications or power line transmissions, it doesn't matter. AC or DC the concept is still the same. Again Electricity 101. Wait, they do make conductors that transmit a signal in one direction only... they're called diodes.

Yeah, until their ability to block voltage is exceeded. Ever connect a 9V battery to an LED? You'll want to wear safety glasses for that one.

 

[skers_54]

I don't know about directionality with respect to grounding, but I know it doesn't exist on the signal-carrying wires. Music is an AC signal, so by definition it travels in both directions. I definitely can't tell when the signal is in the positive portion of the waveform vs. the negative portion. The article in question is probably BS.

 

[Halon451]

Yeah, until their ability to block voltage is exceeded. Ever connect a 9V battery to an LED? You'll want to wear safety glasses for that one.

Well, we're talking normal circumstances, not reverse biasing a diode to breakdown conditions. I've been deeply involved in component level electronics for many years, so trust me I've done my own brand of such "experimenting", and much more than that as well. .

Beyond this though, it's silly to continue this thread. This discussion is off-base, barely relevant, and as TLS put it, no need to waste any more of our time with even the original question posted by the OP. PM me sometime if you want to have a great discussion on electronics and electrical theory, it'll be a hoot.

 

[avliner]

You're most definitely right Halon & TLS,

no need to continue this thread, as it's a total snake oils bs, indeed.
All I wanted to know was your opinion and I got it, which I thank you all

Let me then talk to a friend of mine, who insists to believe in fairy tales

 

[highfigh]

Well, we're talking normal circumstances, not reverse biasing a diode to breakdown conditions. I've been deeply involved in component level electronics for many years, so trust me I've done my own brand of such "experimenting", and much more than that as well. .

Beyond this though, it's silly to continue this thread. This discussion is off-base, barely relevant, and as TLS put it, no need to waste any more of our time with even the original question posted by the OP. PM me sometime if you want to have a great discussion on electronics and electrical theory, it'll be a hoot.

OK, fess up! What kinds of "testing" did you do?

 

[mtrycrafts]

It seems hard to me to believe that if you plug any AV cable towards the right direction (following the arrow direction, kinda one-way street though), you'll have an improved AV performance overall.

Please tell me that this is another "snake oil endless bs" though.
Below you'll find some comments about this:

http://www.russandrews.com/article-Truth-or-Myth-Cable-Directionality-russdirectionality.htm

I wonder who got the Nobel prize for this discovery. When labs can measure current in the nanoamps, this would be easy to discover.
Does water have a memory?
Are there real psychics?

And, by the way, why does it take a belief in this silliness? Knowing would be much better, no?

 

[HedgeHog]

I try to make it so that my cables are oriented from a higher point from source to a lower elevation for the destination. So source is higher than amp and amp is higher than the speaker posts. This way, the sound electrons dont' have to fight gravity.

One side effect is this tilting makes my balanced cable unbalanced. Oh well.





Anyhoo, the fancier cables I have (Tara Labs) have directions on them. Not sure if I hear any audible differences if I swap them around. For aesthetics, I made my DIY cables with the print on the sleeve go from source to destination. (e.g. The words read left to right for pre/pro to amp and same dealie for amp to speaker. Although, the TechFlex does cover that up... )

Cheers and enjoy your equipment.

-H