I can certainly see why someone might reverse the cable and think the difference in sound was due to the dielectric material, not the wire itself. Even if the tester believed wire was directional how could he separate the effects of the wire directionality from the effects of the dielectric dirctionality, assuming there was any? We have seen a similar situation with the fuse holder being given full credit for fuse directionality. We see all manner of theories that avoid the elephant in the room.
Directionality of wire
I am a fan of Chris Sommovigo's Black Cat and Airwave interconnects. I hope he does not mind me quoting him or naming him on this subject, but Chris does not mark directionality of his IC's. I recently wrote him on the subject and he responded that absent shunting off to ground/dialectric designs, the idea of wire directionality is a complete myth. Same with resistors and fuses. My hunch is that 95% of IC "manufacturers", particularly the one man operations of under $500 IC's mark directionality because they think it lends the appearance of technical sophistication and legitimacy. But even among the "big boys", the myth gets thrown around like so much accepted common knowledge. Thoughts? Someone care to educate me on how a simple IC or PC or speaker cable or fuse without a special shunting scheme can possibly have directionality? It was this comment by Stephen Mejias (then of Audioquest and in the context of Herb Reichert's review of the AQ Niagra 1000) that prompts my question;
Thank you for the excellent question. AudioQuest provided an NRG-10 AC cable for the evaluation. Like all AudioQuest cables, our AC cables use solid conductors that are carefully controlled for low-noise directionality. We see this as a benefit for all applications -- one that becomes especially important when discussing our Niagara units. Because our AC cables use conductors that have been properly controlled for low-noise directionality, they complement the Niagara System’s patented Ground-Noise Dissipation Technology. Other AC cables would work, but may or may not allow the Niagara to reach its full potential. If you'd like more information on our use of directionality to minimize the harmful effects of high-frequency noise, please visit http://www.audioquest.com/directionality-its-all-about-noise/ or the Niagara 1000's owner's manual (available on our website).
Thanks again.
Stephen Mejias
AudioQuest
Read more at https://www.stereophile.com/content/gramophone-dreams-15-audioquest-niagara-1000-hifiman-he1000-v2-p...
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@terry9, I ran across this thread. If you have not read it you may find it of interest. https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/diy-interconnects-review#Jadem6 . |
Jim, re your question about Sean's post that you quoted, I looked at all of his posts in that thread, and many of those provided in it by others. As you alluded to, no specifics were presented, and so I have no idea as to what sort of "curious phenomena" he may have been referring to. About all I can say about his post is that he should have said "phenomenon," not "phenomena." :-) Best regards, -- Al |
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