Tweakers' Asylum

auricaps, which way round?

82.20.23.70

Wally

I've got some auricaps to go in the signal path and I know they are directional sound wise. I think I read somewhere that the signal should enter the black lead and exit the red. Is that right.

BTW, I never used to believe in the directionality of biderectional components until I heard a fuse both ways round! I still don't understand what could be going on though.

Follow Ups:

Sonicraft lists the black lead as the shield. - tubesforever 17:18:11 08/27/07 (0)
Hope this helps.
You bet, switch the direction of your fuse and you tell me!!!nt. - moray james 21:16:51 08/23/07 (6)
nt.
moray james
- have you heard this effect as well or am I going mad? nt - Wally 00:25:59 08/24/07 (5)
  .
  - RE: have you heard this effect as well or am I going mad? nt - moray james 09:26:13 08/24/07 (4)
    Yes I have. You can hear the same thing with a piece of wire in a cable or a capacitor (NP). While I have not experimented with them I would also expect to see the same affect with chokes and resistors.
    moray james
    - RE: have you heard this effect as well or am I going mad? nt - Wally 09:56:39 08/24/07 (3)
      blimey, it's going to be difficult testing resistors if they're soldered in place. Are there any theories on this, as I don't really understand what's going on?
      - RE: have you heard this effect as well or am I going mad? nt - moray james 10:07:19 08/24/07 (2)
        
        In Reply to: RE: have you heard this effect as well or am I going mad? nt posted by Wally on August 24, 2007 at 09:56:39
        
        well wire is drawn through a die (a series if dies) and this creats a nap like in a carpet where the fibers lay in one direction. So the surface tension is different in one direction and I would guess that the matrix in the wire is also not symetrical. This probably accounts for most of what you will hear with wires. Wide bandwidth coax cables polish the centre wire and will also plate with Rhodium because Rhodium is as smooth as you can get when plating, the molicules lay flat then they polish again.
        moray james
        
        RE: have you heard this effect as well or am I going mad? nt - Wally 10:21:46 08/24/07 (1)
        
        In Reply to: RE: have you heard this effect as well or am I going mad? nt posted by moray james on August 24, 2007 at 10:07:19
        
        I wonder if anybody really undertands the physics of current flow. The problem for me is that ac current will flow one way, then the other, so any asymmetry should be balanced out shouldn't it?
        
        RE: have you heard this effect as well or am I going mad? nt - moray james 10:31:53 08/24/07 (0)
        
        In Reply to: RE: have you heard this effect as well or am I going mad? nt posted by Wally on August 24, 2007 at 10:21:46
        
        you could think of it like the connections in a vacuflo line. If there are any sharp edges or flanges at the joints they will cause a disturbance creating a small vortex and that will cause a drop in the vacuum. Not the same thing but a disturbance is a disturbance. The only way to make it go way is to insure that the joints are all flush and smooth. There may be other things going on in the wire but the point is you can hear it.
        moray james
You say you heard what? - KurtP 17:23:38 08/23/07 (2)
So, reverse the fuse direction, and your amp sounded different?

Please comfort me that I have misunderstood you........
- Welllll - Russ57 17:32:00 08/23/07 (1)
  Perhaps you would not be seeking comfort if he had said," After removing and re-seating the fuse it improved the sound. I guess it somehow cleaned the connection."
  
  I can offer no other comfort on this matter cept a drink:)
  
  Russ
  - not what he said! - Jayme 20:42:51 08/23/07 (0)
    He didn't say it sounded better...he just said it sounded "different"...It could have sounded worse after he switched it!
    
    Not that I believe that switching the fuse around could cause any difference in sound...but we're talking semantics here.
    
    The only thing I can think of that would marginally make sense is if the fuse was one of those plate strip fuses, and that when he dropped it back in the plate was oriented at a different angle than the original, thus coupling either more or less RFI into the circuit...
Shield? - Jayme 14:24:52 08/23/07 (0)
I accidentally installed my auricaps "backwards" according to the company website. Auricap suggests Black goes to ground in a PSU application, or Black goes to Signal Input in a signal application.

Sounds fine to me the way it is, so I haven't bothered to switch.

If Auricaps have a shield (which they may, I don't know), the above recommendation makes perfect sense. For a cap, you would want the shield grounded in a PSU application, or on the signal input side to reduce the coupling of RFI noise into the output of the cap. Exactly the same as with shielded interconnects.

If they don't have a shield, I am not sure....maybe the Black lead is connected closer to the casing?

As far as absolute sonic qualities, I would think it would be the same. Connecting backward might just introduce a bit more noise into the signal.
Signal coupling, - Poindexter 09:09:22 08/23/07 (0)
Black lead upstream. Power supply, black lead to ground.

According to the manufacturer.

P

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