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Musiclink cables sound better reversed

I have a Rotel preamp going to a Rotel 1590 amp. I use a decent cd player going into the preamp. I connect the cd player to preamp and preamp to amp with Transparent Musiclinks, RCA all around. I connect cd player to preamp in the direction indicated on the cable. But when I connect the preamp to amp the same “right” direction (the direction of the flow), it sounds horrible. A 2 year old would say so. But, when I eeverse the preamp to amp cable, it sounds great.
1. Why?
2. Am I going to hurt anything?
I would greatly appreciate some guidance from those who clearly know more than I. I was ready to sell my musiclink cables until I tried the reverse direction from pre to amp. Now, I love them. Thanks.
kumakahn
maritime51's avatar
maritime51
1,288 posts
 
Oh, Transparent has a trade up pricing system. I traded my gen 1 musiclinks for the Plus and love them. Number nine...number nine....🙀
gakman
52 posts
 
I believe that the shield inside the cable is attached to ground only on one end, that being the end the arrow points to. When you reverse direction with signal flow going opposite of arrows your only changing witch component (sending or receiving) has the grounded shield end attached to it.Should not be a problem for your equipment, if it sounds better and no hum or other undesirable issues go for it!I use my interconnects for my phono stage with signal flow opposite of the arrows and the sound is much clearer and leaner, and in this case is exactly what is needed, big improvement.
Gary
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
It depends on which is more important sonically, the shielding or the wire directionality. Assuming the interconnects are shielded. Some interconnects with arrows are unshielded.
kumakahn OP
48 posts
 
Thanks everyone. Maritime, right now I have the Rotel RC-1580 preamp and the RB-1590 amp. I had the RB-1075. I don't think I have the experience to compare the RB-1590 amp to other higher-end amps. But I think I know good, clean, fast sound. I am very picky about how music should sound out of my B&W 804S speakers. The 1590 amp has been a big improvement, especially in bass response, depth and speed and a complete absence of audible signs of distortion at any level I care to listen to.  It actually gives the 804s a little of a workout for a change.  It has oodles of headroom, and I really like its transparency. I dont like warm sounding systems, but I do like range and linearity, and I feel I get that from my system so far. I would love some preamp recommendations, as that is probably next.
kumakahn OP
48 posts
 
All my reference CDs sounded better last night with the Musiclinks reversed than with any of my other cables. In the “right” direction, bass drums sounded like someone plunking on a watermelon, and the mids and highs sounded compressed and muffled. I would say the Musiclinks added just a tad more warmth than my Audioquest cables, in the “wrong” direction that is. But it was just the right amount of warmth in a system that is not that warm to begin with, and the mids and highs were just as clear and airy as with the Audioquest.
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