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Cable directionality

I'm sure this has been discussed before but I missed it, so what is all this stuff with the direction of voltage flow with cables? Every cable you see any more has a little arrow on it. Since the signal is AC and travels one direction as much as it travels the other, what difference could this possibly make. I have talked to numerous co-workers (all electrical engineers) and they ALL say this is the biggest bunch of bunk they have ever seen. Since I am the only "Audiophile", I try to keep an open mind(I'm also the odd man out being mechanical.) Skin effect, resistance, capacitance, etc. are true issues. You pass power through a wire and it creates a magnetic field. You do deal with impedence and synergy with the driving source. How about a few technical answers from the audiophile community.
bigtee

Showing 2 responses by marakanetz

marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
I'm glad to hear the vast word from Audioengr!

I might add that conductors inside the cables have a certain % of impurities that have mostly semi-conductive structure; there are some dielectrical micro-structures as well. All these components might play the role while the cables burn-in but not on directionality.

Orbeck, the metal does change but with larger signal levels when the electric break-in of impurities occurs. With line level signals this is nearly-impossible.
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
And another cable question to Orbeck:

How long it's needed to take off the statics from the dielectric if it's all we need to break-in the cable?

I would estimate it to tenths fractions of the second or even less...
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