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Directional speaker wires, what and why.

I've been aware for a long time that some speaker cables are designated as "directional". To a limited extent I can understand the rational behind choices based on wire size and construction, biwiring, etc. but don't understand how any conductor can have directional characteristics even in a DC circuit. I'm not denying the possibility but can someone please clarify this for me?

The only reason this comes up is that some time ago, I changed from spades to locking bananas on my wires. It was just yesterday that I noticed that my cables have arrows printed on them indicating, I suppose, that they should be hooked up with the arrows pointing toward the speakers from the amp. The cables in question, btw, are Straightwire Octave 2's.

I've experimented with speaker wires in an attempt to optimize my system but have never been able to discern much, if any, difference between them. That being the case, though, I now don't know whether these have been situated incorrectly since about 2004 when I bought them with my Martin Logan Odyssey speakers.

How can there be a directional character to a conductor and how does that affect sound?
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czarivey
4,494 posts
 
Hakuna Matata!
audiolabyrinth's avatar
audiolabyrinth
4,483 posts
 
I back grannyring here!, cables, mmmm, well lets see, I will give a small example, The effect is more so with speaker cables, also, this depends on the model and brand of cables, we all know, all cables are not the same, I have a pair of 10 inch Tara labs omega jumpers that I use on a pair of JBL L-7 speakers that I have modded, underneath the speakers, and using these jumpers, First off, These jumpers are one of the most profound up-grades over anything else with cables, as far as I am concerned!, These jumpers did not take long at all to break-in, makes sence because they are 10 inches long, I reversed the jumpers, my wife was in the next room at the back of the house, not even a whole song went by, she come running into the listening room, she said, what did you do?, Of course, I knew, and could hear a huge diffence!, so I said, what do you mean?, she thought the system blew somthing, she asked me to put the jumpers back the same signal direction, wala!, very magical sounding to say the least., cheers.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
On a hunch I switched the direction of my Analysis Plus interconnects recently and the difference was like night and day. I had read somewhere in cyberspace that the arrows on the AP interconnects should be in the reverse direction from Logic. Just goes to show how unreliable information on the Internet can be sometimes. Consistent Channelization of all cabling in the system is also quite important sonically as I found out.
czarivey
4,494 posts
 
On a hunch I switched the direction of my Analysis Plus interconnects recently and the difference was like night and day
More likely because of fresh reconnection and nothing more.
Cleaner surfaces cleaner contacts. Treat with deoxit in addition to hear even better differences.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
Czarivey wrote,

"More likely because of fresh reconnection and nothing more.
Cleaner surfaces cleaner contacts. Treat with deoxit in addition to hear even better differences."

Uh, the contacts were already clean so your theory is incorrect, though interesting. Like fuses, all cables are directional. I did not create reality.
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