Speaker Cable Direction?

This is worth explaining.

I argue this subject because it's so blatantly wrong. It's like a big group of people you respect walking up to you and telling you the speed of light in a vacuum is 30 miles an hour, or that the Earth is flat and the Sun orbits it.

Wouldn't you try to change their minds, or at the very least say why you disagree?

Directionality in speaker wire DEFIES THE LAWS OF PHYSICS. I don't think anyone here fully understands the meaning of that phrase. I really don't care whether you or anyone else can hear it, I KNOW that you can't. It DOES NOT EXIST, in the same way I know that that leprechaun you saw last week doesn't exist. Whatever difference you're hearing is called the placebo effect, (which is coincidentally very well known to scientists and doesn't break any physical laws).

I'm not going to bother wasting my time flipping my wires around because I know damn well that nothing is going to change, just like I know that when I walk out my door, gravity will hold me on the ground, and the speed of light is still going to be 299,792,458 metres per second.


Anyways, I had no intention of getting drawn back into this absurd debate...

 

Hi Gary,

The reasons are simple.

Some folks don't hear what others hear. Neither does their (second grade) "understanding" of physics provide them the room to "fit" something new into the picture they have.

Those who believe they can learn no more are, in my experience, always correct.

To say, "I tried it but I don't hear it" and to further say "I just don't understand why it would be the case" takes a lot more confidence than most Internet audio cowboys have.

Much easier to say "I won't bother trying it, because it is impossible that anyone hears this" and "it violates the laws of physics".

The fear is further spotlighted when the arrogance shows up, which is usually quite early. Suggesting others who do hear it as being subject to "placebo effect" (such a tired argument and one those posters never seem to consider as working in the other direction, on themselves - of course not, as "placebo effect" only works on that which they themselves do not hear).

To me, when someone attempts to tell someone else what that other does or does not hear, we have the summit of arrogance and the lowest of self-confidence. It is transparent to all except those making such posts.

The main question I continue to have is why folks with such obviously superior knowledge would bother wasting their precious time on forums that discuss these things they already know are impossible. Why argue with folks who hear what they know cannot be heard. Something tells me their efforts are not philanthropic. (These are frantic efforts at maintaining audio confidence in the face what they just don't hear.)

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

 

This thread is not about directional shielded cables. There is good science to say that they would potentially sound different depending on which way they're connected. We are talking about a standard piece of speaker wire - with identical connections at both ends. In this case the wire is by no means directional.
Brad

 

OK, I didn't realize those were the parameters of the discussion, or that directionality based on shielded designs was given any creedence by those debating against directional cables.

 

I wonder if the OP decided to try another forum

 

Yes, they certainly seem to be. Shielded designs are 'directional' only in that it is possible to hear slight differences when reversed depending on the components being connected. This is because you are actually changing what the shield is connected to - not that the conductor itself is directional. You are doing no such thing with a standard wire. Thus the debate...

Brad

 

ok, you're right.
@ all
first we need to remember that the title is : "speaker cable direction" means: "same" cable right?
if yours answers are yes...ok, this is what i understood!

i was electronic technician for more than 35 years and i don't believe and don't have any scientific proove in favor of the directions of the cables as the resistence and others factors are the same no matter the directions..etc(no more tech arguments, ok!)

even if i don't believe that changing the directions of the speakers of the cables can change the sound i still let the open door for some reasonables possibilities and it takes me to this questions as one complete newby that can think in this same reasonables possibilities:

if the directions can change something, means that we have to test all wires in the complete audio system. where we have to start? in all wires inside the amplifiers first testing one by one?

what to do ?

 

do not forget to check your house AC line or why not make an audiophile grade directional type (with the arrows) and suggest to your power grid manager to look into the phenomenon

on a serious note- I have been a DIY cable and speaker guy for a few decades - No argument with materials, geometry or connector designs even when LRC measures the same. However I have never been able to definitively and repeatably hear 'directional preference' of a cable while listening to my music test CDs/LPs.
I do have some fine speaker cables by a major audiophile manufacturer (of both amp/cable that I own) that claims it is 'directional' but I still have failed to discern it.
It could be that I am not physically able to discern the subtle (I hope) difference or that my lifetime technical background just dismisses such a 'bizarre' notion.