DIY Helix Geometry Cabling

One thing I forgot to mention - the Audiogon Private Messaging feature...

• for some reason, when I try to use this feature the following message is displayed
  • You must have a verified phone number and payment method to send messages.
• Since I am extremely guarded in my use of my "payment informtation", this is not going to happen
• so for the time being please DO NOT use private messaging to contact me
• I will monitor this thread for any questions

Many Thanks - Steve

@noromance - the purpose of the helix neutral is two fold

#1...

• to stop the alternating voltage in the signal wire from inducing "noise" into the neutral wire, which utlimately is fed back into the neutral side of the circuits of the connected components.
• Noise on the neutral side of the circuit impacts the ability of the circuit to perform as designed
• When used on all cables in a system noise is elimanated throughout the system.

Some say this is negligable, but at each "stage" that noise is amplified and as such creates a significant problem by the time it reaches the speakers.

The speakers have the highest voltages, so they make the biggest impact to the neutral side of the amplifier

On the power cable side of things - any noise on the neutral permates through the entire system via the attached components and contributes greatly to system wide noise issues

#2...

• The helix spiral acts like a faraday cage around the signal wire
• it minimizes the impact of "external noise" on the signal wire(s) by disrupting the "Space" around them
  • a bit like a screen

Yes - Noise rejection is very good, both from external sources and internal cable  signal induced noise

• e.g. I once held a standard turntable cable (i.e. from the MC cartridge to the phono) tightly n my fist, against a Helix power cable
• to even my surprise, whilst there was a very small amount of hum coming from the speakers is was only audible when the amp was turned to very high levels

Hope that helps - Steve

@zlib - the answer to your questions are ...

• it depends how sensitive your ears are
• in general, using regular wire for the DC power circuit should not degrade performance of the circuit that is using the 5v supply too much
• insulaton is not as much of a factor with DC power
• If you are using the cable to connect to a computer I would recommend using a seperate power supply
  • computer USB power is very noisy compared to a dedicated 5v supply
  • this entails seperating the power lead from the signal wires at the source end and attaching a seperate USB plug for power only
  • This would improve performance of the connected component significantly.

In reality, the signal passing through the signal wires causes a connected component to vary the current drawn in the 5V supply line - this in turn cause very small fluctuations in voltage and the combintion can cause very small degradation of the signal passing through the signal wires. IF your ears are extremely sensitive, then you may hear a difference between using OFC for the 5v line and one using OCC copper for the 5V line.

Hope that helps - Steve

@mpower1001 - seems our PM thread has been locked

Take a look at this thread for details on the DIY Helix Cables - see the first post for links to PDF files containing construction details

Regards - Steve

@nightlyfly - sorry not to reply to your PM, but that feature requires a credit card number and I do not enter that into any app, so I have to respond via this thread.

Your question...

Hi Steve
I am preparing the Helix cables, I use copper / teflon, do you want to describe the differences using the bare cable vs the teflon coated cable, I am using Neotech cables.

Without getting into the technical aspects, I noticed a significant improvement in clarity, articulation & dexterity, very fine details, like the echoes and reverberation of the venue and a new, larger 3D image . Live albums exhibit a more realistic reproduction beyond anything I had heard. It puts you in the venue

It’s difficult to attribute which cables provide those benefits because all of my cables were Helix, and as I developed a new approach I changed all of the cables to that approach.

I guess the big difference with the power cables was the 3D nature of the image

Hope that helps, steve

@raf90 - apologies for my delay in answering your posts.

Unfortunately, I have taken the web site down due to the expense of hosting.

But the first post of this thread contains new links to pdf files that shows how to build them.

Regards