Directional Cables

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BadgerBeerIsBest
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Directional Cables

Unread post by BadgerBeerIsBest »

Apologies if this subject has already been done to death!

Just about to order some more cables and the Chord Company ones they are to replace have directional arrows on them, is this the wiff of B... S... or should I take note of how I use the new TIS cables and always re-connect them the same way around?

Thanks
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Re: Directional Cables

Unread post by karatestu »

Yes you must always use them the same way around. Every TIS is sacred, if a TIS is wasted God gets quite irate. :grin:

Seriously, as with religion I think directionality is a load of old bull shit. You might find a few believers hanging about though.
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Re: Directional Cables

Unread post by savvypaul »

I did an interconnect bake off with a few friends. 1 of the 5 cables was simply my TIS reversed in direction, played immediately after it had played in it's usual direction.

Everyone assumed they were hearing a different cable, but they all marked it as 'virtually the same' as the last one.

I've not heard any differences in normal swapping around of cables for testing / dems, here, either.

Try it and listen for yourself. If you hear it, you hear it.
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Lindsayt (Sat Sep 19, 2020 3:52 pm)
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Re: Directional Cables

Unread post by Daniel Quinn »

Doc argued direction was audible in multistrand and twisted cable. Should you change direction with these cables they will settle, but audible differences exist till they do.

He had no explanation for this phenomena.

Me, I can't be arsed establishing my truth, life is to short.
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CN211276 (Sat Sep 19, 2020 11:24 am) • Lindsayt (Sat Sep 19, 2020 3:52 pm)

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Re: Directional Cables

Unread post by BadgerBeerIsBest »

Thanks for your opinions.
Most of us think that cables need 'running in' so something must be happening to the metal when the signal passes through it, as you can tell from my technical descriptions this is not my forte .
Will mark one end of my cables as the source end, and have a play swapping them around later.
Thanks again

I
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Re: Directional Cables

Unread post by Daniel Quinn »

If youve got nva cable, the doc was of the opinion directionality was not noticeable. Hence the reason they are not labelled directional.
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Lindsayt (Sat Sep 19, 2020 3:52 pm)

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Re: Directional Cables

Unread post by Lindsayt »

When I've tested interconnects, the differences between different cables have been so small or non existant that I could have driven myself crazy indentifying if one cable was worth spending more money on than the other.

With different speaker cables there's been some tonal differences - at the frequency extremes, that were relatively minor compared to changing the positioning and angling of the speakers.

Cable directionality? Didn't hear any noticeable difference myself when I've tried it.

There are so many other things that do make significant, easy to hear, sonic differences. EG speaker choice. House choice. Analog source choice. etc etc etc.

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Re: Directional Cables

Unread post by Geoff.R.G »

Lindsayt wrote: Sat Sep 19, 2020 4:03 pm When I've tested interconnects, the differences between different cables have been so small or non existant that I could have driven myself crazy indentifying if one cable was worth spending more money on than the other.

With different speaker cables there's been some tonal differences - at the frequency extremes, that were relatively minor compared to changing the positioning and angling of the speakers.

Cable directionality? Didn't hear any noticeable difference myself when I've tried it.

There are so many other things that do make significant, easy to hear, sonic differences. EG speaker choice. House choice. Analog source choice. etc etc etc.
Does anybody really believe that recording studios worry overly about the XLR cables they use? Some may but I suspect there is a lot of Van Damme Star Quad cable with Neutric connectors out there, that is what I use when I am paying. If somebody else buys bulk cable I use whatever they buy and fit Neutric connectors. Directionality? I never really notice which end has the plug and which the socket when I make them up.
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Lindsayt (Mon Sep 21, 2020 1:26 pm)

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Re: Directional Cables

Unread post by Colin Wonfor »

Having made a few cables in the past, I found it was not the cable/wire but the dissimilar material in the connections that made the difference. For example Gold will migrate into Copper thus losing it shine and in some cases cause a molecular bond between the plug and socket, so when the cable was reversed we had a new voltaic reaction and a small DC voltage. This happen to all metal and also the alloys of these metal.
Now this small DC voltage and I do mean small can be added and subtracted to the sound as the signal voltage passes though zero.
I found on low level detail i.e. small signals the ratio was higher and the error was worse, and you could hear it.

So the question still stands can the direction of the cable/connection change the sound and not always to what we expect.
Now with that in mind the next step is solder, PCB material, wire alloy mix, and many many more things so small but together a monster.
Oh do any of you recall Positive Chassis connections in cars?
Did you dad complain about corrosion of the Copper terminals on the steel chassis, mine did a lot. See if you can find out why? this happened and not now. well not so much and only in German Cars.
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NSNO2021 (Mon Sep 21, 2020 12:30 pm)
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Re: Directional Cables

Unread post by Geoff.R.G »

Colin Wonfor wrote: Mon Sep 21, 2020 10:56 am Having made a few cables in the past, I found it was not the cable/wire but the dissimilar material in the connections that made the difference. For example Gold will migrate into Copper thus losing it shine and in some cases cause a molecular bond between the plug and socket, so when the cable was reversed we had a new voltaic reaction and a small DC voltage. This happen to all metal and also the alloys of these metal.
Now this small DC voltage and I do mean small can be added and subtracted to the sound as the signal voltage passes though zero.
I found on low level detail i.e. small signals the ratio was higher and the error was worse, and you could hear it.

So the question still stands can the direction of the cable/connection change the sound and not always to what we expect.
Now with that in mind the next step is solder, PCB material, wire alloy mix, and many many more things so small but together a monster.
Oh do any of you recall Positive Chassis connections in cars?
Did you dad complain about corrosion of the Copper terminals on the steel chassis, mine did a lot. See if you can find out why? this happened and not now. well not so much and only in German Cars.
That Colin is the closest I have ever seen to a credible explanation of why cable may have directional properties. Obviously it has nothing to say about unterminated cables where the manufacturer has no say in what is fitted on the ends, such as speaker cable.

My biggest problem with the idea of directional cables is that I am usually too interested in what is coming out of the speakers to worry about how it gets there.
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Colin Wonfor (Wed Sep 23, 2020 8:00 am)

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