Cables/Ass

[Hans Lindauer <hans@ernieball.com>]

I have to side with the non-directional faction on this issue.  Nice
explanation, Dean - it makes a whole lot of sense to me.  I can buy the
argument that electrons might flow more easily in one direction than the
other, but they've got to swim in both directions to transmit audio
signal, so it's not going to matter which way the cable points.

The only argument I could see for having an arrow on your audio cable
would be that (correct me if I'm wrong here, electronics experts) on a
shielded cable you're only supposed to connect one end of the shield to
ground so as to avoid ground loops.  So assuming that all of your cables
have arrows on them, and all of the arrows are pointing toward the
amplifier end of your signal chain, then that would mean that all of the
shields are connected at the "downstream" end, like they're supposed to
be.

Now, I could possibly be convinced of directionality in digital cables,
since they're not carrying an alternating current.

My $.02,

-Hans