One Way Cable?

[Rick Levine]

The guy at GC was trying to sell me a "one way" TS instrument cable. He said it reduced a noise path, in that it only allowed electrical flow in one direction. Um, huh?

Anybody know whether or not this is snake oil?

[BF]

Check your shoes, you had to be standing at least ankle deep in it.

[Warhawk]

Yeah I read something similar when checking out a super-duper high quality cable:

Direction: A special procedure in the productions of OFHC permits the alignment of it's crystalline structure allowing a natural 'direction' in which electron flow is facilitated. This allows the direction of preferred signal transmission to be pre-imposed on the copper allowing improved transmission in that direction. The cable will also work in the opposite direction but with diminished performance. The cables have arrows on them to indicate preferred direction of signal path.

It also went on to say:

The use of fine conductors helps combat 'skin-effect' You either know what this is or you dont if you dont this isnt the place to explain it in detail suffice to say it's an electrical phenomenon which can cause high-frequency loss in cheap cables. For those that understand skin-effect Proel have dealt with this by using a very large number of extremely fine conductors to minimise skin-effect. This large number of fine conductors also helps reduce capacitance. Cheap cables can often attenuate signals by 4db/octave from as low as 5Khz due to their capacitance having a detrimental effect on the high frequency sound. Proel's cables are tested to ensure low-pass to atleast 100Khz. By having a larger number of thinner conductors there are other advantageous side effects; improved flexibility and improved EM shielding. A great number of finer conductors allows a close knit braid in the screen layer of cables thereby improving the sheilding against EM interference created by electrical equipment and cables.


Are indeed both or either of these things wrong/odd? How deep would I be standing in it?

[Blue Bear Sound]

Would you like to buy a Bridge? I'm selling one called Lion's Gate.... I can get you a good price!

[synthologist]

Anybody know whether or not this is snake oil?

Very fine snake oil indeed.

[Warhawk]

Would you like to buy a Bridge? I'm selling one called Lion's Gate.... I can get you a good price!

Depends, does traffic experience diminished performance going the wrong way over it?

[_controlfreak]

I have an old TS Monster "Keyboard" (not line, not instrument . . . ) cable that has arrows pointing in one direction that says "SIGNAL FLOW." We were having feedback, and the old FOH guy would come up "Well here's the problem, you've got this cable going backwards again." We still had feedback, he just refused to acknowledge its existence.

I wish I was kidding.

[corgan4321]

The signal flow arrows would be pointing the way the cable was initially burned at the factory. One way down the cable there is technically less resistance but often unnoticeable. Cables are always burned in the way the writing on the cable is written.

[Steven mc.]

there could be SOME science Behind it, but I would tend to say it doesn't matter like the rest. I never paid attention to the arrows.

[Opus]

Anybody got my
Left Handed smoke shifter
and
sky hook?

[Farview]

One way down the cable there is technically less resistance but often unnoticeable.

Audio signals are AC. The signal doesn't flow from point A to point B like DC current, it goes back and forth.

For example, if you sent a sine wave down a 'one way cable' you would only get half a sine wave out the other side. As in the positive side OR the negative side. It would be useless and sound like poop.

Complete and total BS. Even if they did make a cable that the signal would only flow one way (by adding a diode to it), you sure as hell wouldn't want one. It would sound like a cheap distortion box.

Another reason to hate Monster cable.

[Hammy]

It would be useless and sound like poop.

No reason to drag Ashlee into this, is there?

[_controlfreak]

I can think of a few uses . . .

[Ever since Hammy's . . . "accident," he hasn't been thinking of these things]

[Embrace]

I'm no master at this but...

The "One way" would be referring to a single end shield - I've seen some planet wave "instrument cables" that are only shielded on one end, something to do with possible ground hum issues.

The "skin effect" happens in super high voltages where all the electrons flow on the outside of a conductor. Whether or not this affect happens with high frequency low voltage I have no clue.

Chances are though, none of us "mortals" can hear a difference. Anyone seen that article where they replaced a monster cable with a coat hanger and had "audiophiles" compare the audio quality? ROFL

[TKMJ Productions]

The guy at GC was trying to sell me a "one way" TS instrument cable. He said it reduced a noise path, in that it only allowed electrical flow in one direction. Um, huh?

Anybody know whether or not this is snake oil?

Excuse me Rick. I hate to tell you this but snake oil should only be applied to an audio snake that is full of mud for cleaning it. Proper preperation is the key. Use a GC salespersons clean shirt to apply the oil. It is your choice weather the sales person is waring it or not.

[Embrace]

I found the skin effect thing on wikipedia. There's a lot of tech garble but sounds like the higher the frequency the greater resistance generated by the conductor (ie. patch cable). This **might** lead to some loss of higher frequencies.

I'm sure it's worth investing in good cables at the end of the day, specially if everything else in the chain is high quality. Bring the cables home and try them out to see if there's any noticeable difference. There's a lot of cables between source and final product, and a lot of sources that make up a mix.

Here's the link if you're brave enough to read through:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_effect

[BF]

The "One way" would be referring to a single end shield - I've seen some planet wave "instrument cables" that are only shielded on one end, something to do with possible ground hum issues.

I don't know about the "one way" terminology in that application, but ground lifting is used (the shielding effectively only being connected at one end, typically the console, but does travel the length of the cable) in a star grounding scheme.

And monster only uses the finest coat hangers forged in the vacuum of space.

[tim]

The "skin effect" happens in super high voltages where all the electrons flow on the outside of a conductor. Whether or not this affect happens with high frequency low voltage I have no clue.

Maybe thats why the active pickups on my bass sound odd!!!

[Opus]

http://www.usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3429.asp#

This is even more better

[ecc83]

Skin Effect is only a problem over a certain band of frequencies. Once you get high enough the tuned circuit coils get so small it is economical to just up the diameter. Furthermore any attempt to avoid the problem invovles bundling fine INSULATED wires ( see Litz) If Monster et al mention "skin effect" and cables with a fully conducting mesh in the same situation they are talking their usual bollocks.

The effect CAN be detected down to 10kHz or lower but is only a problem for high Q tuned circuits and would never be so in any lowZ out to 10k in situation.

And the starting point! If cables showed a "direction" as has been said, they would generate even harmonic distortion and although some think it benign ( valve gear nuts) distortion means intermodulation and that ain't never nice.

Dave.

[_controlfreak]

http://www.usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3429.asp#

This is even more better

For those of you who don't click Opus' links . . .

That is a FIVE HUNDRED dollar ethernet cable for digital audio "enthusiasts."