Directional cables

[shellylh]

(I am ashamed to admit this but) I have an old pair of Monster 1/8" -> RCA cables and they are directional. I was confused by this and looked up this on their website. It says:

Why do the cables have directional arrows?

This is done for shielding purposes only, a design where we do not solder the shield on the signal's destination. This ensures that any noise picked up by the shield will not be transmitted into your signal path.

Can I assume that any other cable that I buy will not be directional? For example, I want to get the Blue Jeans Cable RCA-1/8" cable or similar and want to use it from my DAC or GS-1 line out to the Pico Slim.

Also, I don't understand Monster's explanation. Why would this make it directional?

[Dusty Chalk]

I understand the theory, but it's not entirely valid. You're basically trying to make a Faraday Cage with a hole in it at one end (which is not entirely invalid -- it will still attenuate the induced noise). Whether or not you want to connect the non-hole side on one end or the other is entirely up to you. There are other brands that do this. (Offhand, my Outlaws had the directional arrows.) But most do not, correct.

As someone once told me, "last I heard, electricity flows both ways".

[spritzer]

It does flow both ways and the shield is connected to ground on one end so it's really connected on both ends minus the miniscule resistance in the wire. I do file this tweak under the "won't hurt" category but feel free to use directional cables any way you want.