cable directionality

Oh boy! There is some confusion here. I always heard that the arrow points in the direction of signal transmission (preamp to amp), which means that, for conventional grounding practice, the IC shield would be grounded at the TAIL of the arrow. I use my ICs this way. However, depending on your particular electronics, it may make no difference, or be better the oposite way around. Grounding is not an exact science, and a little experimentation is appropriate.

Frankly, I wish the arrows had never happened in the first place, but maybe a bit of history will serve to clarify the current situation.

The first instance of the use of arrows that I recall was on the Bruce Brisson-designed shotgun-type Monster Cable IC's back in the 80's. (Bruce then left Monster to start MIT, which also had arrows imprinted on the jacket)

These (single ended) cables had two identical signal conductors (both barrels of a "shotgun") surrounded by a shield. The shield was connected to the "ground" conductor (the one connected to the "ring" of the RCA connector) at only one end of the cable, meaning it could carry no signal but acted as a "floating" shield to protect the two signal conductors. This design far surpassed the traditional coaxial single ended design in its resistance to hum and rfi, and basically put Monster Cable on the map.

The arrows were meant to indicate the direction of signal flow from a SOURCE COMPONENT to the PREAMP. The arrowHEAD thus pointed to the end of the cable that had the shield connected to the ring of the RCA connector. That way, when the cable was installed with "the arrows pointing in the direction of the signal flow", the shield's ground potential came directly from the preamp ground and not via some circuitous route through the source component.

However, if all the cables' shields were to be connected at the preamp end ("star grounded" with the preamp at the center of the star,) that meant that the cables connecting the preamp to the amp, STILL HAD TO HAVE THEIR ARROWS POINTING TO THE PREAMP, EVEN THOUGH THAT WOULD MEAN THEY WERE POINTING IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION OF THE SIGNAL FLOW. This produced a lot of confusion (and arguments) at first.

Eventually, folks realised that the significance of the arrows was not really signal flow, but the fact that they indicated at which end of the cable the shield was connected.

Unfortunately, arrows were soon sprouting up everywhere, even on cable that did not incorporate Brisson's shotgun design, particularly speaker cable. There was a certain cachet if a cable had arrows on it! In a call I made to Straightwire in the early 90's regarding the significance of the directional arrows on their Maestro speaker cable, I was told that they were "auditioned" before leaving the factory to determine which orientation sounded best. Yeah, right!!

Now, when arrows indicating signal flow are shown, there are many exceptions to the rule of the arrow head indicating the end of the cable where the shield is connected. I don't know them all (the exceptions) but I do know that in the case of Magnan's and Purist Audio Design's single ended IC's, the shields are connected at the arrow TAIL end of the cable. Jim Aud at Purist told me he did it that way because he felt (at least when connecting a source component to the preamp) that it was best to take the ground potential from the quietest end, which according to him would be the source. However, I think it's important to remember that both Magnan and Purist use their own hybrid topology (layout of the conductors) which is very different from Bruce Brisson's original shotgun design.

Hope this helps.

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Fortunately it rarely makes any differencs!!

I once installed shielded 300 ohm twinlead (not a common wire) for a TV, and was surprised to discover that the "proper" grounding for the shield was not grounded at either end.

I always use the direction of the signal from front end to amps. The most satisfying rule probably should be what sounds best, but some cables don't mind which way you use them but switching them around makes them sound worse at least for a while.

Most preamps in my experience are ungrounded making the star grounding idea impossible.

Recently I have just followed the manufacturer's directions, which are usually one of two: it doesn't matter but don't change or source to load.

I understand that sometimes the arrow indicates the direction the cable came off the cable machine and nothing else.