Interconnects, some have directional indicators, why?


I'm curious as to why some interconnects are directional? Is there a physical internal difference and do they generally sound better and cost more than non-directional cables? Thanks for your interest.
phd
Hello phd,

Very interesting question.  As a full service authorized STEALTH Audio Cables dealer, I would like to refer you to the tech notes on the STEALTH Audio Cables web site named "cable directionality".  You will learn that many cables show arrows of direction even though 99% of cables out there are not truly directional making a cable direction ambiguous, if you will.  More here, scroll down to the second of the bottom topic:

http://www.stealthaudiocables.com/technotes/index.html

Regards,

Ron,
The STEALTH House
https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/5390





audioquest trumps stealth. all cables are directional, y’all. there is no wiggle room in reality.

Hi jea48, I didn't mean blowing fuses. I meant the sound improvement (buttery smooth sound) with switching to the right direction for wires and fuses.

@jea48
Mihorn
the direction of metal cable is physically made and the sound doesn't change with the length of time. I heard sounds of many 40-50 years old metal wires in vintage gears melts like butter (in sound) in 1~2 minutes.

Rephrase

      I heard the hard and grain sound of a 40-50 years old vintage gear became a smoother sound like melted butter in 1~2 minutes after changing few wires to a correct direction. The direction of metal cable is physically made and the sound doesn't change with the length of time.

      That includes fuses in vintage gears. Few decades old fuses in a wrong direction will not improve the sound. However, the sound will improve instantly right after switching the fuse to a correct direction.

kraftsound
Linn K20 / Naim Naca 4 speaker cables are directional due to a burn in process at the factory. If they are connected the other way around they will adapt to that and after a couple of weeks they will sound the same as before. There is a small audible difference.

      In my experience, 80% of sound improvement of wires (wires in correct direction) is in first 1 hour. 90% will be in 24 hours. 99% will be in 200 hours. As Linn and Naim say, there is a small audible difference in both directions and they don’t care about directionality of wires of K20 Naca 4 cables (may be lower-end).

      This could be their way of marketing. Companies lower the quality for low-end products. And they make right for higher end. I use Mundorf caps for my speakers and the right direction of wires in Mundorf Supremes is always against the letter direction. The direction of wires in all Mundorf higher end (silver/gold, silver/gold/oil) is same with letter direction.

Alex/Wavetouch Audio


Well, thank you Ron, I will look into that right now, it should make for an interested read.

mihorn,

My post was in response to this part of your post;

That includes fuses in > 30~40 years old vintage gears. Switching the direction of the fuse, the electrical current takes longer time (and subtle) to hear the effect because many active parts have to react to the change of new current (unlike audio signal). In my experience, it usually took 1~10 minutes to hear.

AC current is not flowing through the fuse. Energy is, in the form of an electromagnetic wave.

I think if you guys that have experimented with fuse direction, and can hear a difference, it is hard to justify if one believes AC current flows back and forth though the fuse. If that was the case then the fuse would have to act as a diode in one direction to hear a difference. What other reasoning can you use?

If you use the theory, energy travels through the fuse in the form of an electromagnetic wave from the source to the load, then the next question is how could reversing the fuse make a difference?


Here is what herman posted again:

If you say the AC fuse blew because there was too much current flowing

through it everybody nods in agreement even though that isn’t true. If you

say the wire in the fuse melted because it got too hot after absorbing

energy from the electromagnetic wave people look at you like you are

insane and want to argue that vibrating electrons constitute current flow.