Cable directionality

Orbeck, Tara Labs is using this design with their isolated floating ground shield(ISM). However, this is not the same shield that runs with the cable that is connected to the outer portion of the RCA jack. Tara uses a separate shield that is suppose to lower RFI and EMI interference. It is the one connected to the floating ground station. I checked it with a meter and you will not get a reading from the shield to the outer portion of the RCA plug. Tara runs two RSC conductors through the cable. One as the signal carrier and the other as the ground(or shield.) It is connected at both ends as verified with a VOM. If you look at all the equipment, without fail, the outside of the RCA connector is tied to the units common ground. I know there is a lot of potential for noise here. However, back to the original question, what difference does pointing the direction if the signal is alternating back and forth. Since no signal potential should be on the shield, where does it fit in(as in break in.) I can understand the dialectric issue but what would direction have to do with that? Man, lots of questions here.

The arrows are there to satisfy audiophiles who think directionality matters. Of course, it's AC, so the signal is constantly going in both directions.

In general, the reason that the shield of a twinaxial cable is grounded at the source is because this is where the signal is being driven. The most accurate ground reference for a driver will be at the driver, not at the destination component. If there is noise developed across the signal return, then this will not be induced on the shield as it will if you ground the shield at the destination end. The felling is that the ground will be noisier with respect to the signal at the destination end compared to the source end.

I'm glad to hear the vast word from Audioengr!

I might add that conductors inside the cables have a certain % of impurities that have mostly semi-conductive structure; there are some dielectrical micro-structures as well. All these components might play the role while the cables burn-in but not on directionality.

Orbeck, the metal does change but with larger signal levels when the electric break-in of impurities occurs. With line level signals this is nearly-impossible.

And another cable question to Orbeck:

How long it's needed to take off the statics from the dielectric if it's all we need to break-in the cable?

I would estimate it to tenths fractions of the second or even less...