h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Can anybody give me a rational explanation as to why HiFi interconnects (those phono-to-phono cables that go between your CD player and amp for example) are often supposed to sound better one way round than the other? My cables even have arrows printed on the sheathing indicating direction from source to amp. Isn't the electrical signal AC? How can there be any difference?

I can hear the difference between good and cheap cables though.

Shouldn't be any difference, my cables don't have any arrows, thats got something to do with the fact that I whipped 'em up myself.

I don't see any valid reason that you couldn't turn the cables around (as long as the connectors are the same at both ends).
The only explanation I can come up with is that if you tell people they only work one way, it saves tech support from having people call and ask "which way do these cabes go?"

Kimsanee

I think it is something to do with the way the shield is connected or something. I'll toss in the words 'capacitance' and 'impedance' if that makes me sound like I know what I'm on about.

Another explanation could be that people who waste 50,000 quid on a hi-fi need an extra reason to dissappear up their own backsides.

- Adam

All of the interconnects on my hi-fi are "directional". I've tried all of them the wrong way round and realised that

a) it makes no perceptible difference, and
b) I should get out more.

Phono leads are phono leads, whether gold plated or not. although if you twiddle* them in the sockets they may make better contact.


*technical term

One story I heard (to be taken with a pinch of salt) was that the directionality was supposed to be down to assymmetrical arrangement of the copper crsytals in the wire produced as the copper wires are progressively reduced in diameter by drawing through dies.

What I can't understand is that if you're passing a pure AC signal through the cabling, surely if there *is* any measurable directional asymmetry in electron flow due to the submicroscopic arrangement of constituents of the wire, it would have a negative effect, as it would create a different response to positive and negative-going parts of the audio waveform.

Even if there *is* a miniscule positive difference, which I rather doubt, in most real-world situations, I would have thought any improvement would be so small as to be swamped by background noise. Better save the money and buy some more music to listen to.