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Directional cables. Explain??

My van Damme speaker cable at £3 / metre has arrows to indicate it is directional. So I wire it up that way, arrows from amp to speakers. Does it make any difference? Who knows or cares - it doesn't make the speaker cable expensive, nor does it cost me any money to wire it in the way that it is supposed to be.

Does it. I feel let down<j> Just checked mine and could not find any arrows. Looked along the side with the printing on and just not there. How far apart are these arrows? Even if they are different ways round I am not bothering to change them. I wasn't expecting anything from them, just glad to replace that awful Tellurium Q Black I wasted my money on.

Don't expect anything and you can only get pleasant surprises
 
I suppose the placebo effect comes down to how each individual responds to such things, it seems you may be susceptible considering your post but others may not, I'm in the latter camp.

I do not consider myself susceptible, quite the opposite in fact. I am a cynic and a broadcast sound mixer of 40 + years experience. I am trying to understand how some can hear stuff others can't and the results cannot be measured either other than the price.
 
Think of it this way, if you never read reviews & only buy second hand, blind with no previous knowledge of a cable how is it possible to be sucked in by the hype of a salesman or ad?
How would this explain when one buys a cable with the intention of improving things only to be disappointed by the result, in your philosophy it would automatically sound much better as you have splashed out hard earned cash for it so you would convince yourself it did.


Paragraph 1. Non sequitor. Someone buying without expectation bias will not be biased.
Paragraph 2. The real world has a nasty habit of intruding from time to time.
 
I hate all this nonsense about hearing what you want to, been here before & I said it then, if this is the case why not buy a Tesco special micro for £25 & convince yourself it's a 10 grand high end system, no lover of music does this for obvious reasons, it's all nonsense written by those who actually fall for this thinking everyone is of the same ilk, wake up call, we are not.


First point. That is the opposite of expectation bias and indeed the placebo effect. Reverse snobbery maybe! I agree, it is unlikely to happen and goes against any logic.

Interestingly the placebo effect is used as legitimate medication, even more interesting is the finding that when the patient is told the (sugar pill) is rather expensive, a higher percentage of positive outcomes are seen. I only have one reference for this but I have seen in print that the colour of the pill is also measurable in terms of outcomes. Light blue is a calming colour and is used in anti high blood pressure placebos, it works well except in Italy where it is the colour of the national football team and gets men all geed up and has a negative effect.

Second point, I agree, we are not all of the same ilk, I don't hear directionality, others do. I can tie a zeppelin knot and some can't for want of trying. Different folks, different strokes. I have a slight tendency to envy those who can slip from belief to faith without noticing the transition but I am too old and mired in logic and experience to change now.
 
Does it. I feel let down<j> Just checked mine and could not find any arrows. Looked along the side with the printing on and just not there. How far apart are these arrows? Even if they are different ways round I am not bothering to change them. I wasn't expecting anything from them, just glad to replace that awful Tellurium Q Black I wasted my money on.

Don't expect anything and you can only get pleasant surprises
Mine's the studio grade with clear sheathing - UP-LCOFC or whatnot. Arrows are close together and constant. Makes sod all difference I'm sure.
 
Mine's the studio grade with clear sheathing - UP-LCOFC or whatnot. Arrows are close together and constant. Makes sod all difference I'm sure.

Thanks. Mine is blue without a hint of arrow. Someone will make something of that difference no doubt.
 
Mine's the studio grade with clear sheathing - UP-LCOFC or whatnot. Arrows are close together and constant

Is this 'studio grade' genuinely marketed to studios, or is that just some marketing puffery? I ask because, from what has been said on here and elsewhere, it seems unlikely that directional markings would be taken seriously on studio cable, unless it actually made a difference. Thus, marking studio cables with directional markings could be counterproductive, if you're actually trying to sell it to studios.

Unless it actually means something, obviously.
 
Is this 'studio grade' genuinely marketed to studios, or is that just some marketing puffery? I ask because, from what has been said on here and elsewhere, it seems unlikely that directional markings would be taken seriously on studio cable, unless it actually made a difference. Thus, marking studio cables with directional markings could be counterproductive, if you're actually trying to sell it to studios.

Unless it actually means something, obviously.

I seldom buy anything called "Pro Grade" or "Studio Grade". When I do, I am not surprised to find sloppy screening, untwisted pairs in balanced cables and badly made terminations. Buying mic cable from Professional suppliers with a part number on the side will reveal effective screening, many twists per inch and reliable long service. 10 "Pro" xlr cables I bought only because they were needed next day and they had next day delivery are only useful for line level sources, mic level signals are compromised by lots of hum.
"Digital" is also used as a marketing tool. I had a "Digital FM tuner" once. The digital display presumably qualified it.
 
Does it. I feel let down<j> Just checked mine and could not find any arrows. Looked along the side with the printing on and just not there. How far apart are these arrows? Even if they are different ways round I am not bothering to change them. I wasn't expecting anything from them, just glad to replace that awful Tellurium Q Black I wasted my money on.

Don't expect anything and you can only get pleasant surprises
Have you visited the van damme website? I suggest you avoid it if you don't want to be let down by hyperbole, it's full of the usual cable claims , no different from any cable site, just there own take on things. They have latched onto popularity in the same manner as anyone running a business, expand with items no one really needs but make anyway to make extra cash backed up by hyperbole.

For example, why make a hifi van damme speaker cable when anyone buying this stuff for their hifi go for the blue series studio grade, money, no different.
 
Is this 'studio grade' genuinely marketed to studios, or is that just some marketing puffery? I ask because, from what has been said on here and elsewhere, it seems unlikely that directional markings would be taken seriously on studio cable, unless it actually made a difference. Thus, marking studio cables with directional markings could be counterproductive, if you're actually trying to sell it to studios.

Unless it actually means something, obviously.
It's simply what it is branded as. I have no idea if it is marketed to studios. Sorry, if you're interested then maybe you could see what google comes up with. I'm pretty happy with it, for 2.5mm gauge it retails about £3 per metre.
 
I put a set of Linn Analogue interconnects between my TT and phonostage.. but I fitted them back to front.

In the runout track from the next record I played, I heard John Lennon's disembodied voice warning of global catastrophe if we don't 'Give peace a chance'. Then I heard Ozzy Osborne saying 'shu'the****upyoscousepanzay'.

I was stunned.

I was playing an Abba LP.
 
Marketing, pure and simple.


Cables carry a signal right?
So why on interconnect and speaker cables do you often see arrows pointing a certain way - to or from source or amp - how can this be?
Surely the signal will travel up the piece of cable the same way?

Nonsense or is there any fact or science to this?

Just wondered as moved house and setting it all up again - and keep seeing these arrows !
 
It's simply what it is branded as. I have no idea if it is marketed to studios. Sorry, if you're interested then maybe you could see what google comes up with. I'm pretty happy with it, for 2.5mm gauge it retails about £3 per metre.

Yep, done that, thanks. It is, from what the website says, very much aimed at the studio market.
 
I have a spare arrow. Yours for £ 245 plus VAT.

Cables only cost £56 and I ain't fussed about direction on speaker cables so no thanks.

I am totally ocd on I/C though. When I am bored one day I'll swap them about to listen for a difference. I wonder if you listen for something you tend to hear something. Whereas if you just put a cable in because you need to connect something up it has to shout at you to be noticed if it is different.
 
Here's the Van Damme page for their hifi speaker cable;

http://www.van-damme.com/25.html

This range comprises a shotgun style twin interconnect cable and 5 conductor sizes of shotgun speaker cable. These cables can be found in many professional environments; in particular the 4mm and 6mm speaker cables are used for critical near field monitoring in many world class recording and mastering studios as well as being the speaker cable of choice for more than one world class hi-fi equipment manufacturer. New 0.75mm and 1.5mm cables cater for domestic hi-fi and surround applications.

Applications

High end domestic hi-fi cables
Professional critical monitoring

Application notes

Shotgun construction for easy conductor separation & identification
Speaker cables have ultra-fine 0.10mm conductors with 7 way plait construction to minimise the skin effect.

....That's it. No ridiculous claims, lots of specs listed.

Here's what they say about their 'Session Grade instrument cables;

The Silver Series range comprises 3 unbalanced instrument cables engineered to have three specific capacitances. They are primarily for use for guitar and bass guitar to amplifier applications. The construction of these cables utilises a no compromise approach to materials and electrical characteristics; consequently flexibility is not a priority and these cables are aimed at recording rather than live performance.

The range comprises the following cables:
Lo-Cap 55: 55 p/F per metre. Low capacitance figure gives low high frequency roll off
Flat-Cap 90: 90 p/F per metre. Mid range capacitance figure gives average high frequency roll off
Hi-Cap 125: 125 p/F per metre. Higher capacitance figure gives more high frequency roll off

Honest imho.
 
. I wonder if you listen for something you tend to hear something. Whereas if you just put a cable in because you need to connect something up it has to shout at you to be noticed if it is different.
I'm sure of it. Just as I'm sure that if you are sure there won't be a difference then there won't be. I'm equally sure that expectatiuon bias isn't always as obvious as you'd think but definitely skews the results some of the time.
 
I do not consider myself susceptible, quite the opposite in fact. I am a cynic and a broadcast sound mixer of 40 + years experience. I am trying to understand how some can hear stuff others can't and the results cannot be measured either other than the price.

My audiogram.
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My wife's audiogram.
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Taken a few minutes apart. Does that help? That was 9 years ago, but my test this year has the same rising response.
 


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