The Contour System – Directional Wiring of Audio Parts


Hi guys!

The topic is about subjective homemade research of conductors directivity. I know most people don't believe in such phenomena so probably the story is not for them but for those who find it unbearable to listen to imperfect sound of chaotically directed wires and components.
As for me, I hear direction difference distinctly. The matter started from interconnect cables quite long ago, after a while I added to my research inner wiring of loudspeakers, then discover the importance of mains cables direction. After all I decided to find the directions of all the wires and components of my pretty vintage DIY tube mono SE amp and after everything had been done I drew a resulting schematic and wrote the article. It was in 2005, I have translated it in English only now. Hope you will find the article useful or just enjoy it.
Here is the Link: https://www.backtomusic.ru/audio-engineering/theory/contour-system.
anton_stepichev
First of all, connecting the shield to one side only creates a great antenna. You can pick up all kinds of signals this way. Second of all wire is in no way shape or form directional. This is a great example of how our minds can trick us. Lay instinct is wrong 90% of the time then, if you want to hear something you will. If you blind yourself and have someone else switch back and forth you will not be able to make out any difference. You have to be honest with yourself and understand just how tricky evaluating by ear only is. The differences have to be pretty severe to be able to notices them reliably by ear only. A lot of these myths were started by dishonest companies trying to separate their gear from the pack appealing to lay instinct. What makes sense frequently does not. 
@mijostyn
wire is in no way shape or form directional. This is a great example of how our minds can trick us. Lay instinct is wrong 90% of the time..


OK, this is your point of view. I believe you are not a layman, then please explain me the following:

For example, I love Glenn Gould, I appreciate every note he has. I open YouTube with a professional remastering made by people with a philosophy identical to yours and hear a poor sound without most of the nuances inherent in Gould’s records. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjEAFWKCymY
Then I take his record, digitize it on my amateur equipment, compress it into mp3 and upload it to the Internet.
https://www.backtomusic.ru/19719

Please note that this is not an experiment, all other things being equal. In this situation, I am at a disadvantage because studio remastering was made from master tapes, and I did it from a vinyl that had already been recorded from such a tape some years ago. The LP sounds much worse than the original master tape (ask studio guys if you don’t believe it).

I wonder why remastering from master tape made by professionals on very expensive audio equipment, sounds less expressive and is so poor in timbres and nuances compared to mine? Maybe their appliances have been broken that time? Then I can give you many similar examples if you want.


Thanks for posting those links - fascinating.
All subjective I know. To my ears the Youtube version sounds like it is the same as the one found on Qobuz labelled as a hi-res remastering. You can find on Qobuz the same piece without that remastering badge and at red book and when I asked my daughter’s young and very musical ears which of these two she preferred she said the standard res version sounded “fuller and richer”.  She also thought the Youtube copy sounded closest to the hi res badged version we found.  (The youtube was airplayed to the system so was red book). 
We then played the same piece from your website. Sorry to say, the two young faces and my old face in the room screwed up - “yuk”. Nobody liked the noise, nor the sound. One comment was “it sounds ancient and like it’s being played through a sock”. 
Only opinions and everyone has their preferences.  My family is not conditioned to the vinyl sound, for sure. 
But the point must be that when differences between youtube, Qobuz, and masterings, and vinyl copies are so large, how can the tiny effects of wire directionality matter much?  No amount of wire fiddling is going to clean that dull and noisy vinyl...
@bluemoodriver,

aren’t you confounding quality of input and quality of transmission? An impact of one in no way has a bearing on differences in the other