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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...


fsonicsmith
kosst_amojan
2,095 posts
 
@jea48
You’re joking, right? You really want me to post pics of me testing a piece of wire both ways with a DMM so you can see there’s no difference?

Folks are selling this jazz like 9/11 truthers with rebranded accusations of cognitive dissonance, defying me to prove a negative.

Skin effect is subtle, but that CAN be measured. Nobody here has cited a phenomenon that would explain a wire being directional because there isn’t one. If there was a way to build a directional wire, you can bet your ass that you could buy it by the mile. High speed data buses are forever plagued with termination challenges, specifically, preventing signal reflections from traveling backwards down the bus. If there was any way to form a directional trace or wire, buses for memory and parallel SCSI wouldn’t require meticulous termination. A big reason computer buses have gone serial hub based point-to-point is because terminating them is a hell of a lot easier and cheaper.

Directionality is pure snake oil. Scour JEDEC and IEEE standards. You won’t find mention of any such phenomenon.
dlcockrum's avatar
dlcockrum
2,105 posts
 
kosst,

I was beginning to really follow along in paragraph 3. Good stuff. Then the "pure snake oil" comment. Pffffffft. The balloon lost its air. Honestly, is there a more overused and trite slam in the world of audio? You can do better.

Dave

geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
 
kosst_amojan
@jea48
You’re joking, right? You really want me to post pics of me testing a piece of wire both ways with a DMM so you can see there’s no difference?

>>> Speaking for myself I prefer that uber skeptics and naysayers not (rpt not) test cables or fuses for direction for obvious reasons. 

Folks are selling this jazz like 9/11 truthers with rebranded accusations of cognitive dissonance, defying me to prove a negative.

>>>>Whatever..

Skin effect is subtle, but that CAN be measured.

>>>>>>So can directionality be measured. And very easily, too. Don't you have your listening ears on?

Nobody here has cited a phenomenon that would explain a wire being directional because there isn’t one.

>>>>>Again, you don't have your listening ears on. The phenomenon has been known for at least 20 years. Have you been living in a cave?

If there was a way to build a directional wire, you can bet your ass that you could buy it by the mile.

>>>>actually, you can not (rpt not) build a wire that isn't directional. See the irony?

High speed data buses are forever plagued with termination challenges, specifically, preventing signal reflections from traveling backwards down the bus. If there was any way to form a directional trace or wire, buses for memory and parallel SCSI wouldn’t require meticulous termination. A big reason computer buses have gone serial hub based point-to-point is because terminating them is a hell of a lot easier and cheaper.

>>>>Wire directionality probably would not (rpt not) show up in data communications. I've already addressed this. It's an audiophile thang! 😁

Directionality is pure snake oil. Scour JEDEC and IEEE standards. You won’t find mention of any such phenomenon.

>>>>>I doubt you have actually "scoured" those standards or any standards. Besides there are no standards for sound quality or for audiophile cables. There are no standards for many audiophile issues, actually, like polarity. 

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analogluvr
800 posts
 
What a load of BS!!
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