Can you hear the "directionality" of interconnects and speaker wire? Kevin LaTour can.

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Steve Hoffman, Dec 24, 2004.

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  1. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    Try hooking them upside down for a real treat..
     
  2. Doug G.

    Doug G. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin, MN USA
    Hmmm, interesting. When I did that, the music came out of the amp.

    :D

    Doug
     
  3. Djoel

    Djoel Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    I never paid any attention to those little arrows on certain cable I just hooked away, until recently I've learn the importance of following instructions. Don't want to break any rules:edthumbs:


    Djoel
     
  4. ponkine

    ponkine Senior Member

    Location:
    Villarrica, Chile
    from the non-expensive cables I own, the only one which really has made a difference with directionality was Xindak SC-01 (speakers)

    My Audioquest King Cobra interconects have shown no difference with directionality. Once a friend came here with some VERY expensive Audioquest (I think Sky or something) and they shown no difference either.
     
  5. Casino

    Casino Senior Member

    Location:
    BossTown
    Steve, you're right as usual. I just may leave them that way for a while, except when I played Mahler's 6th it came out as Mahler's 9th. No problem with the 8th, though.
     
    Robin L likes this.
  6. wolf66

    wolf66 New Member

    Location:
    Austria
    :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
     
  7. canyelles

    canyelles Forum Resident

    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Try playing Hendrix's "If 6 was 9"

    Sounds exactly the same!
     
  8. Casino

    Casino Senior Member

    Location:
    BossTown
    Just played ? & the Mysterians old hit, "69 tears."
     
  9. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    Heh.

    I just played "66 Luftballons"
     
  10. Metralla

    Metralla Joined Jan 13, 2002

    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    And it sounded like "99 Snollab Tful" ?
     
  11. Casino

    Casino Senior Member

    Location:
    BossTown
    Technically, that's what you'd get with the wrong directionality.

    Hooking up the cables upside down would give you "66 Luft Balloons," as Steve heard. Hooking up the cables upside down AND with incorrect directionality would give you "Snoollab Tful 66" (which sounds pretty good, by the way).

    Hope that clarifies this very technical issue.
     
  12. Gary

    Gary Nauga Gort! Staff

    Location:
    Toronto
    So that's the shortened "hit single" version?
     
  13. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    [​IMG]


    Did this work? Is it moving? Awesome! I'm easy..
     
  14. enginesix

    enginesix Member

    Location:
    chesapeake, va
    I never brothered to find out. I doubt I could tell the difference.
     
  15. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

  16. Ronm1

    Ronm1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    NH
    I had a diff with Spdif coax from Xport to Dac yrs ago. Old house and certain units turning on could cause noise/dac errs. Fluorescent lights, dimmers, heating system, etc.. When cable was not in arrow direction no change, correct orientation, noise was abated. Never a had a problem with optical, Aes/Ebu or I2S, only spdif coax. I suspected the gnd oriented correctly
     
  17. Bob Olhsson

    Bob Olhsson Motown Legend

    Location:
    Nashville, TN
    Something I learned is that tightening up all of the electrical connections between the service entrance and the audio gear can often make a great many wire differences go away! In many cases they have been corroding away for 50 years or more. Wire shouldn't make much of a difference but that's only true when there are tight, non-corroded connections everywhere and the grounding and power supply of every single piece of audio gear was properly designed which is often not the case. It's all a system including the building wiring so any one component taken outside of that context is meaningless. I've run into studio situations where the transformer on the pole needed to be tightened up or even replaced in order to get RFI out of the power.
     
    Robin L likes this.
  18. LEONPROFF

    LEONPROFF Forum Resident

    I never tried switching the cables around and not sure I want to go to all that work. However, back when my rack had a glass door I seemed to be able to hear the difference if I left the door open. I would be walking back to my listening chair and think "that sounds odd" and every time I had left the door open. Granted it might have been my subconscious but I never turned to look when it was closed.
     
  19. hazard

    hazard Forum Resident

    I make all my own inter-connects because IMHO, audio cable are a crock of bull dust. I use good quality wire, always single core, I have flat computer ribbon and plaited wire wrap wire for my long interconnects, and because I bi-amp I only have short speaker cables (about 18 inches). Never bothered to switch them around because I can't see how it would make any possible difference. But my system is all balanced so I wonder if that makes a difference? Or excludes any differences? My total cable cost is a few bucks, my system sounds as good as most I've heard, can't understand how audio cables can cost $$$.
     
  20. Danglerb

    Danglerb Forum Resident

    Location:
    Orange, CA, USA
    Whats funny to me is that any difference due to wire direction is due to weaknesses in unbalanced RCA connections, but instead of insisting on pro style balanced connections audio nuts spend money on magic wires.
     
    hazard and Shawn like this.
  21. chumlie

    chumlie Forum Resident

    I hooked them up correctly in the first place and never bothered to switch them to find out.
     
  22. Chris Schoen

    Chris Schoen Rock 'n Roll !!!

    Location:
    Maryland, U.S.A.
    "more open and natural sounding" - may be a bit too subjective to "measure".
     
  23. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    Kevin's test was not double blind, but 20 in a row is impressive
     
  24. Halloween_Jack

    Halloween_Jack Senior Member

    Location:
    Hampshire, UK
    I wouldn't trust any manufacturer who charges what Kimber charges:

    http://www.russandrews.com/product....&customer_id=PAA1191029513246YJIDHTKKGUTZLFRG

    http://www.russandrews.com/product....&customer_id=PAA1191029513246YJIDHTKKGUTZLFRG

    To wit: it's clear what his modus-operandi really is. Making as much money from gullible individuals as possible. He's been in trouble with the Trading Standards people over some of his wilder claims too...

    The only cable manufacturers I trust are the ones who make the stuff (like Belden), not buy it in and rebrand it stick a fancy covering and logo on it, and makes all sorts of outlandish claims...

    Funny that many of the worlds most highly revered recordings in terms of sound quality were made with absolutely bog standard (but suitable for the task!) cables, not tweaky gimmicks and so forth.

    No - I cannot hear the difference between interconnect directions, unless the grounding arrangement in said lead is directional...
     
  25. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    Was the poll reset somehow? It seems only 47 claim to be able to hear it.
     
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