[blessingx]

Just picked up two Acoustic Research mini to rca Y-cables. Because of my setup (soundcard->x-feed mk111->meta mint...) I need one to be reverse of the other. The cables are marked "balanced directional" from the mini towards the rca's. Did a search here, but can't find an explanation for "balanced directional" and what I would loose if I reversed it. Maybe this is really obvious to others, but could someone let me know both points?

Thanks much.

 

[blessingx]

Pretty please.

 

[Hirsch]

If these are the blue AR cables from Best Buy, I've got a pair. As near as I can tell, they were set up for going from a line output to a sound card, and the arrow tells you which way to look for your computer. Sonically, I haven't been able to tell a difference using it either way, but at least the arrows make it look "audiophile" or something like that. It's actually a decent little cable, and you lose nothing going in the direction opposite the arrows (not true with some of my other interconnects, but that's another story).

 

[blessingx]

Yeah, those are the cables. Acoustic Research's website is down and their customer service number has a message about not having a usable customer service number.

Thanks for the info. I can't really test the loss if reversed so glad to hear there shouldn't be a problem. Still curious about the term though.

 

[Ebonyks]

Directional cables usually have asymetrical shield designs, and typically sound better going in the intended direction. There will probably be sonic damage from running them backwards

 

[Dusty Chalk]

The shield is only connected at one end, and is "floated" at the other. It won't do as good a job shielding from RF interference the other way, but should otherwise be the same.

(Unless you believe all that hoopla about copper "grain".)

 

[lini]

blessingx: The idea behind is, that the device with the mini-jack will probably be portable and thus have no real grounding (that's the floating end, then!), so the arrow should usually show towards the rca plugs. To achieve optimum star grounding for the shield, all arrows poiting towards only one device with a real ground connection in the chain should be theoretically favourable - but in real world, you might as well notice no difference at all, especially if all devices have at least some kind of power line connection at all...

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Quote:

Originally posted by lini blessingx: The idea behind is, that the device with the mini-jack will probably be portable and thus have no real grounding (that's the floating end, then!), so the arrow should usually show towards the rca plugs. To achieve optimum star grounding for the shield, all arrows poiting towards only one device with a real ground connection in the chain should be theoretically favourable - but in real world, you might as well notice no difference at all, especially if all devices have at least some kind of power line connection at all...

Hey, yeah, that's a good point. As I was corrected before, many months ago, "...last I heard, electrons flowed in both directions..."

So yeah, it shouldn't matter, because even if it's floated on the "wrong" side, it'll still be grounded on the receiving end.