hahahahhaaaa……. been there done that……and I still have my marbles.
At risk of blowing any engineering kudos (don't care really ) here's my tuppence-worth.
I and my colleagues in the Sound Dept (i.e. electronics engineers) used to laugh at such notions as reversing cables to make differences in sound, that one cable would sound any different to another, as long as they were engineered well and suited the application etc, etc. after all, we ran in thousands of meters of cables in the TV studios without any regard to which way they were going, and everything tested just fine.
Until one day the company photographer brought in a pair of van den hul unbalanced phono to phono cables that he paid silly money for and claimed that he was amazed that he could hear the difference and said that we should really try them out.
After roundly slagging him off and taking the mick for being such a eejit, we all proceeded, individually and separately, from our initial cynical and incredulous standpoint, to audition these wonders.
There were a few sheepish faces afterward.
There is a difference.
The direction of the cable can make a difference.
Whether there is a difference, and the amount of the difference, seems to depend on the circuit the cable is in.
I really did not want to know this.
Here's a few cheap things you can try at home when no-one is watching.
Canare GS-6 guitar cable sounds different when you reverse its direction.
Loudspeaker cable - 2.5mm solid core mains installation cable (twin and earth) sounds different to 2.5mm stranded cable.
Take the 2.5mm solid T&E cable apart and reverse the direction of the blue neutral wire, it sounds different.
I didn't want to hear these things.
I approach the subject first with a guitarist's ears, and an engineering mind second.
If I can make a difference that I like for next to no outlay, then I'll use it, and work out why later.
I would love to know why the cable-reverse thing happens.
I don't know why it does.
I do know that a cable is a very complex circuit, and things get more complex if you connect it to a complex load like a loudspeaker crossover and speakers.
Please would some bright spark go and find out instead of slagging folks off. Yes, that's you, John Watkinson. Prove it doesn't happen if you can.
I've done these tests until I got sick of it, and felt I was approaching insanity. Now I just listen to the music on my hifi, instead of listening to the cables.
I use Canare GS6 exclusively for guitar circuits, and, for a change, or slight moment of madness, recently tried some Sommer Spirit XXL cable from Germany, but still prefer the Canare which I have been using for 20 years.
If someone doesn't hear a difference, that's fine by me. I won't think less of someone if they don't experience what I can hear. There isn't always a difference. You may not notice a difference immediately if there is a difference, as it's not like the difference you get when changing a speaker. It can be quite subtle, but once you hear it, you hear it every time.
I wouldn't let the theory put you off trying these things. The sound comes first to my mind!
So if you do go down this path, take care, there could lie insanity!!!
Take it easy, VB
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