Bob, I think you pose a good question. From your description I hear you saying that you are concerned about the AS splitters' all four being the same direction, i.e. the two "reducing" ones have the arrow the wrong way.
This sounds bad, but I paid no attention to the directionality of the splitters. I pay little attention beyond using as manufacturer indicates on the cable, to directionality of cables. I have done several tests over the years and all directionality failed my Law of Efficacy (the difference was indiscernible or negligible). The splitters I used have been all stock items intended for one way splitting, and my use is unorthodox, so I presume the arrows, etc. will be "wrong way". I could care less. My entire methodology is against the grain, so to speak. :) Perhaps 20 years ago I would have been disturbed by it, but no longer. I conduct dozens of changes to systems and that type of change does not meet my threshold of importance; focusing on that level of change would slow down my progress in changes to systems.
My assessment is that the directionality is not the cause of the change in sound, but rather the use of a homogenous set versus a mixed set. Between those two alternatives I believe you would hear a clearly discernible difference.
I have done similar also and mixing splitters does change the sound. That was one way to assess the splitters' sonic characteristics and determine a favorite brand for the system being built. So, Kudos for being creative! At this point manufacturers are using stock splitters and making them available for my Method. My guess is the manufacturers are not yet willing to retool or change their protocol on a stock product that is so low volume.
