Jea48 8-18-2017Yes, I see that now, Jim. He does not say, at least in that thread, that cables are directional; he is just addressing the wire itself. Yet it is also true, as we are saying, that the cable configuration he recommends would negate the intrinsic directionality he is attributing to the wire itself.
Rereading Bob’s post he says solid core wire is extremely directional. He is speaking of the wire itself. His comments in his post are about running the direction of the hot/signal and ground/return in opposite directions, as you well noted. Bob really doesn’t say, I don’t believe, the final product build of the two wires, interconnect, is directional though. In fact the thread is about the construction/building of the interconnect and running the two conductors in opposite directions.
As for the "why" of whatever intrinsic directionality wire may possess, I note that even he says "I don’t want to speculate why wire is directional." Although he also says that "it appears to be an FM distortion." FM distortion, phase distortion, and timing jitter are inter-related concepts. And as you alluded to, and I indicated earlier in the thread, timing jitter resulting from VSWR (reflection) effects figures to be the basis of directionality in digital cables. But I have no idea how at analog audio frequencies a symmetrically designed cable might introduce differing amounts of FM or phase distortion depending on which way it is connected.
Best regards,
-- Al