Duelund conversion to DIY Helix Geometry Cabling
I have been an avid user of the Duelund cabling for over two years now and have used them exclusively in my system with great results. I have built many for friends and have used a full loom of interconnects, speaker cables, power cords and an extensive wiring modification for a previously owned balanced power conditioner utilizing Duelund 600V PolyCast wiring which was transformative. My cabling desires can be a little addictive as I have owned and evaluated 40+ brands of cabling costing more than an entire stereo system!
Over the past six months I stumbled upon a thread here on Audiogon in regards to a Helix designed cabling and as you probably already know, I just had to look a little deeper into this cable design…After a month of studying and sourcing parts, I decided to reach out to the designer/architect, Williewonka who gave more insights and philosophy on how the cable came into existence.
That conversation got the ball rolling in converting one of my KLE Duelund interconnects to Steve’s Helix designed which only entailed replacing the neutral with a Mil-Spec 16 AWG silver-plated copper wire with the neural wire being 3 times longer than the signal wire and of course the “Coiling” of the neutral wire : )
After the modification was complete, I was not sure what to expect from the Helix cabling but I was quite shocked with the results with “ZERO” burn-in time…The sound stage became much wider/deeper with a much tighter/focused image and clarity/transparency is like nothing I have ever heard in any cabling regardless of cost. In fact, I just sold a full loom of a commercially designed Helix Cable that’s renowned around the world and has more direct sale than any cable manufacturer; these $200 DIY Helix Cables walked all over them…
I believe you will hear the same results as I have and have heard back from friends who have already modified their Duelunds with the same results; WOW! Remember the cables will need 200+ hours to burn-in and settle into your system. My system is now 90% DIY Helix to include IC, SC, PC and Coax with each cabling adding its beauty of an organic and natural presentation that draws you into the fabric of the music.
You can tailor the sound of your cables using Duelund, Mundorf silver/1% gold, the outstanding Vh Audio OCC Solid Copper or Silver with Airlok Insulation or your favorite wiring and you can change it at any time…
http://www.image99.net/blog/files/category-diy-cables.html
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/difference-in-sound-between-copper-and-silver-digital-cables
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/adding-shielding-to-existing-cables
Enjoy,
Wig
What an incredible read! Any thought about replacing the SC signal wire using 12g dead soft .999 silver wire (or lower) from Rio Grande? - $13/ft. .999 Fine Silver Round Wire, 12-Ga., Dead-Soft (riogrande.com) Thanks... |
@lionel - I have tried the Mundorf Solid Silver/gold, which is pretty close to the wire you mentioned just from a purity perspective However, it seems there is something very special about the UP-OCC copper from either Neotech or VH Audio, because it performed better than the Mundorf.Silver/Gold(1%) Right now the only wire that might perform better than the UP-OCC copper is the UP-OCC solid Silver wire from VH Audio, which is ..99999 purity and it is created using the UP-OCC process which is definitely proving to provide exceptional performance However - everybody has a budget to consider and the Riogrande Wire is a very affordable alternative when compared to the Mundorf Solid Silver and even the VH Audio Solid Copper. I would "guestimate" its performance would be on par with the Mundorf Solid Silver/gold wire. So - it really boils down to your budget, but this wire appears to be worth considering Many Thanks - Steve |
@lionel - if the amp has balanced speaker outputs then the Helix cables will not work well with it, but you will not damage the amp to my knowledge Another word used for this "fully balanced" type of design is "Symmetrical" One member has tried the Helix with this design and said they sounded awful. Once I found out the reason I added the warning to my web site. A lot of commercial brands of cable will not sound their best with this type of amp design. The best approach is to use two individual wires that are NOT joined in any way and keep them about 2" apart. Silversmith Fedelium Speaker cables might be a very good match - a pair of 10ft cables is $1400, which in todays world is not too bad. A lot of people on this forum like them Silversmith Audio You could also try Van den Hul D352 wire and separate the conductors, or there are even better offerings from VanDen Hul. NOTE: Speaker cables for this design should NOT be twisted together, as with XLR Interconnect cables, because the speakers lack the circuitry that eliminates noise. A QUESTION FOR YOU: does the manual for the amp explain what type of speaker cable should/could be used? I have an issue with companies that omit crucial information pertaining to their products that could result in damage - e.g. quite a few solid state high current designs DO NOT like speaker cables with very high capacitance, which can drive the amp to oscillate and damage the amp. NAIM has the same issue but makes their customer aware of it on their web site. A TOTL offering from Cardas has very high capacitance, but Cardas are not to blame because those cables work perfectly well for Tube Amps An acquaintance blew an Ayre and a Gryphon using Cardas cables - that's $20k total - all because the amp companies DID NOT make him aware of the issue . OK - I'll get off my soap box now :-) Regards - Steve . |
