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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


128x128wig
williewonka
3,075 posts
 
POWER CABLE update.

In the past couple of weeks I have revised the design of my power cables.
I now use two slightly different variants:
  1. For SOURCE components - I use 2 x 16 gauge bare UP-OCC copper twisted together (1 complete twist every inch) inside a single Teflon Tube, with a cotton sleeve over the tube
  2. For components that use more power e.g. amplifiers, extension cables and power conditioning/distribution devices - I use 2 x 14 gauge bare UP-OCC copper wire, each wire inside it’s own Teflon tube and then twisted together (one complete twist every 6")
The other wires remain unchanged
  • Neutral - 2 x 12 gauge Stranded Silver plated Mil-Spec with Teflon insulation
  • Ground - 1 x 12 gauge copper with Teflon insulation from Home Depot

Why two different approaches? - $cost - I like to keep costs down wherever possible
  1. the 2 x 16 gauge wires fit nicely inside the PTFE 10 Tube I had available
  2. whereas the 2 x 14 gauge, being a larger diameter wire, required a separate tube for each wire
  3. you could adopt approach #2 for all cables, but I do not think the difference would be significant
Both of these cables perform noticeably better than the previous version that used a single 12 gauge solid bare UP-OCC conductor inside a Teflon tube

Once again the Schroeder "Double Shotgun" approach first introduced here by @grannyring, continues to provide significant improvement to the performance of all Helix Cables - many thanks.

Regards - Steve
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lak
4,626 posts
 
Thanks for the update Steve :-)
markus87
2 posts
 
Thank you so much @williewonka and @grannyring for sharing your findings and improvements!

I finally decided to pull the trigger and build some helix power cables. I will start with my source components and this is what I plan to do:

Live: 2x16AWG Neotech UP-OCC
Neutral: 2x13AWG Jantzen silver-plated copper
Ground: 1x13AWG Jantzen silver-plated copper

For safety reasons however I will leave the PTFE on the live wires.

I have some questions left before placing my order and would highly appreciate your kind answers:

1. Should I handle the 2 unstripped Neotech wires similar to stripped ones (twisted closely every inch)?
2. Should the twisted live wire be covered in cotton? If so, which diameter is appropriate for 2x16AWG?
3. The ratio for neutral and ground to live is 4:1, correct?
4. Covering the final cable in a cotton or nylon sleeve should be avoided in order to get the best performance, correct?
5. Any thoughts on helix DC cables? Or what is your favorite DC cable recipe to pair with the helix AC PCs?

Cheers,
Markus
abolive
21 posts
 
@williewonka thank you for your reply. Point taken for the speaker internal wiring. Btw, do you prefer Neotech to Duelund for such an application ? And what different gauges would you guys recommend for highs and lows?
Regarding the RCA>XLR, I meant a cable between an unbalanced preamp and a balanced amp (my set up).
Thanks a lot, awesome discussion :)
williewonka
3,075 posts
 
@abolive - I prefer Neotech

Provided the speakers are 6-8 ohm I might try something like this
- 1 x 14 gauge for the speaker SIGNAL wire for LF
- 2 x 18 gauge for SIGNAL wire to HF.
- use the same 1 x 14 gauge for both HF and LF neutral wires.

I have used 10 gauge with 14 gauge in a pair of speakers and it sounded very good, but that was many years ago and with vastly different wire. The 10 gauge was very awkward to attach to the board, so I would not recommend it

RE: RCA to XLR...

OK - so there is no real great solution for this setup. You can create a cable with RCA at one end and XLR at the other. The Helix geometry is probably one of the better geometries for this because of the lack of noise in the cable.
On the XLR end
- Pin #1 would connect the neutral coil and
- Pin #2 would connect the signal wire
- pin #3 left unconnected

Hope that answers your questions

Regards - Steve
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