Paul Speltz Founder of ANTICABLES shares his thoughts about wire directionality. Dear Fellow Audiophiles, As an electronic engineer, I struggled years ago with the idea of wire being directional because it did not fit into any of the electrical models I had learned. It simply did not make sense to me that an alternating music signal should favor a direction in a conductor. One of the great things about our audio hobby is that we are able to hear things well before we can explain them; and just because we can’t explain something, doesn’t mean that it is not real.
Over a dozen years ago, David Day, president of DaySequerra and I were collaborating on projects together. David started impressing onto me that wire directionality is real and something I needed to pay attention to. I had heard this a few times before from some of my customers, but my electronic engineering trained mind was not allowing me to accept it as a possibility. Yep, I fell into the stereotypical engineer trap. David finally told me on the phone one day to do myself a favor and just simply test it with my speaker wires, so I did.
Oh wow, David was right. After hearing the sonic difference between what I now call “forward” and “backwards” directionality of wire, I never want to listen to wire backward again. Once heard, the difference was so obvious, I actually scrapped hundreds of feet of wire in our production process that had already been cut off the reel into many shorter lengths. I decided our customers would only get from that time on, a product with the wire directionality qualified, managed and marked properly.
While wire directionality is not fully understood, it is clear that because of the wire casting process, the internal grain structure of the conductor has a slight chevron shape, and it is this physical difference that is consistent with which direction the wire sounds better. When the directionality is “backwards” there is a loss of resolution, cymbals sound like a spray-can and are truncated, voices are grainy and lack presences, the sound stage is flattened, and bass is less defined. When the wire directionality is correct, the music is more relaxed, resolving, delineated, more present, open, and believable.
For over a decade now, all AntiCable products are built with wire manufactured to our specifications, that is then qualified by ear, directionality maintained throughout the manufacturing process, and have the correct directionality marked with an arrow.