Topic: directional cables

[dr.ph0b]

ive never understood HOW a cable can perform better in a certain direction. for example, 1/8" mini to rca stereo cable has arrows for signal flow. lots of other cables have that also including coax rca to rca digi cables.  so, how can a perform better in one direction than the other??

[jpschust]

well, without being able to get too specific, certain cables are designed for electron flow in one direction, hence making them directional.  honestly, ive played with some of those (and even monster claims to do that, but i think it is more of monster's marketing bs) and i cant tell the difference one way or the other.

[dnsacks]

found this over on the oade board's archives --

digital and analog interconnects that are labeled with a "signal
direction" are usually labeled that way because they have three
conductors: signal, return and shield - with the shield conductor
typically wired to ground at the source and open at the load.  This
is supposed to drain RFI away from the load.  You also see this on
power cords but they don't need a directional arrow because the
different connectors at each end ensure that the shield always
drains to source.

In most systems of moderate resolution you won't hear a difference.
If you use interconnects with integrated network boxes that are
matched to the load input impedence, the direction is significant
not because of the wire but because of the order of the network
boxes in the path.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

That was my post on oade board.  I should mention that I was speaking about unbalanced analog and digital interconnects without network boxes.  This concept does not work for mic cables - you can't drain noise toward the mics.  Common mode rejection is what you have to rely on for mics.  For balanced ICs, I can't find a viable explanation.

[dnsacks]

cool, good thing I at least partially attributed the language provided.

Darrin