directional cables?

Herman, Then let's see your facts about arrows and cable orientation because every cable I have had experience with in the last couple of decades uses this standard. Maybe you found some fly by night cable company working out of their garage that got their arrows mix up.

Tbromgard, The arrows point in the direction the signal is flowing. If there are no arrows the writing on the cable follows the direction of the signal.

Jea48,

Even though there is no audible difference, I usually recommend that customers hook up the cables so that the signal flows the same direction as the printing. - Brian

This has been recommended by cable manufacturers because the cables break-in to the direction they are installed. If you disconnect the cables and install them in the opposite direction the cables will sound different because you will be breaking them in to the new direction. Once the cables break-in again they will sound fine.

.... The arrows point in the direction the signal is flowing. If there are no arrows the writing on the cable follows the direction of the signal.
05-20-10: Rrog

Rrog,
You can't just throw out a blanket statement like that.

Older Nordost Blue Heaven ic cables, the arrows pointed to the source.

If memory serves me right an early ic cable of Ray Kimber's made for the CDP to preamp, the arrows pointed to the source.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.

Cable directionality.....

Here is what Audioquest was saying in the 90s.

Fact: All cables are directional, from hardware store electrical cable to the finest pure silver cables. Some cables should be used with the writing going in the same direction as the music (toward the speakers), some should be used in the opposite direction. If you are missing the instructions as to which way to orient your cables, check with your dealer (Audioquest puts instructions on every spool of cable). If necessary you can determine which direction is best yourself, simply listen to the cables in one direction and then the other. The difference will be clear, in the correct direction the music is more relaxed, pleasant and believable. While cable directionality is not fully understood, it is clear that the molecular structure of drawn metal is unsymmetrical, which does provide a physical explanation for the existence of directionality.

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Here is the instruction from a box for the Lapis cables.

Directions

It is important to use Lapis cable in the direction that sounds best in your system. This will almost always be with the plug with a single printed band (plus the plastic band) at the sending end and the plug with the double printed band (plus the plastic band) at the receiving end. For example, the single printed (#1) end at the CD player and the double printed (#2) at the preamp.

With some equipment the cable will sound better with the ends reversed. This is unusual, but does happen mostly with the cable plugged into the power amp. If the performance is irritating or prone to noise pick-up you probably need to turn the cable around.

Please take the time to listen both ways for yourself so that you will be sure you are getting the most performance out of your system.

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Tbromgard, The arrows point in the direction the signal is flowing. If there are no arrows the writing on the cable follows the direction of the signal.
Rrog (Answers)

As Nsgarch wrote in an excellent earlier post, this is not always true.

In the case of a user choosing to utilize the star grounding technique of making the preamp the one grounded component in the system, and assuming the user is utilizing a make and model of cabling that connects the shield at one end and indicates this with an arrow pointing to that end, then the user would connect the source interconnects *and the amp interconnects* with the arrows pointing toward the preamp. The preamp>amp interconnect arrows would not be pointing in the direction of signal flow.

NsGarch and Simply_Q, I see that you have run into Herman's 'this is beyond your comprehension' explanation. Of course Herman is still working on the math that he told me to do, which, actually, does prove that there is no directionality for AC carrying cables. Perhaps the math is beyond Herman's comprehension also.

Salut, Bob P.