what's an electrical engineer to do??

What cables did you order? And on a second note, shouldn't this have been posted in the "Off Topic" forum?

Originally posted by TonyPTX


Used to be an IRC op with an iron fist. Does that count? Seriously though, the basic forum rules are there for a reason. No need to explain them as I'm sure you understand why this post really didn't belong here to begin with.

WTF is an IRC?

does stuff like this really matter?

who cares says the HBomb!

I bet you its the way their electrical engineer design and implement the shielding that make the direction matter. As an example, in the case of many instrumentation cables, you ground the shielding wire on one end only, which end is to be grounded depends on the application.

Thanks for the info burdette. I think AR are the best bang for the buck when it comes to IC. Personally I think there just as good as the basic Monster series IC's at a more competative price.

As for the topic about the validity of the post here in this forum, I'm not saying "talk about wires" doesn't belong here, but what I didn't see was the "question" in your original post. After all, this is the "Basic Hookup/Wiring Questions" forum. (I don't buy the comment about signal direction as a valid question because you obviously knew what to do here).

Originally posted by TonyPTX
And on a second note, shouldn't this have been posted in the "Off Topic" forum?

No Tony, you're wrong too. This post should have been in the "car subwoofer talk" forum.

This is my first time looking through the wiring forum and I'm laughing hysterically. My EE background is throwing the **** flag at half the stuff peeps are saying. Don't even bother wiring them "backwards" we all know there is no difference.

Originally posted by shiu
If the wire is directional because of the ground/shielding design, it would make a difference in the EMI/RFI filtering effect if you do not follow the arrow (assuming it is from Amplifier to speaker). I do agree that the effect would be unnoticeable by most, unless you run your wire in an environment with a lot of EMI/RFI.

I posted something to this effect elsewhere. The best option is of course to route wires AWAY from noise sources. But instead we see systems on here with $300 wires running parallel to AC power. DUMB. The problem of using normal wires in a setup like that isn't that the wires are junk! Its that the installation introduces noise.

I actually have directional interconnects in my car (car has tons of noise sources and limited ability to avoid them compared to home). There is a "drain" wire that goes in one direction, so I get the idea of directionality with it. But there really is very little difference and I tried both ways running right next to my power wire. Next to the power wire there was noise no matter which way the interconnect was directed. Away from the power wire there was no noise in either direction. I'm not saying that I regret buying the more expensive cable- it does a better job shielding the noise than cheaper wire. But I'm talking about a $50 16foot interconnect not some $300 marketing hype.

Also, the wire can not filter away noise. It just shields it from getting in.