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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
 
UP-OCC bare copper wire from Parts Connexion vs. other sources

I have just installed 2 x 14 gauge (effectively 11 gauge) solid signal wires made from the bare UP-OCC copper from Parts Connexion in my speaker cables - each wire is in it’s own Teflon sleeve, with a gentle twist.
The neutral conductor is 10 gauige stranded, silver plated Mil-Spec

OCC6N Copper Hook-Up Wire (partsconnexion.com)

My previous cables had a 2 x 16 gauge bare Neotech UP-OCC signal wire, twisted together inside a single Teflon tube
The neutral conductor is 10 gauige stranded, silver plated Mil-Spec

The quality of this wire appears to be the same as the Neotech or VH audio wire - just without any insulation, so it is perfect for building the Helix IMAGE (Air) variant.

Auditioning the new cables revealed a slight improvement in dynamics, but all the other metrics were too close to discern any improvements regarding image, fine details and clarity.
  • I figure this is due to the larger gauge and also using a Teflon tube for each of the two wires, in place of two wires in a single teflon tube

The wire seemed noticeably stiffer than the the 14 gauge neotech wire I had used on my power cables, which requires a little more effort when fabricating the cables.

One other thing I tried was using the 2 x 14 gauge wires as the neutral conductor (but NOT coiled), just to see if there might be an advantage
- this revealed more details, faster dynamics, but I felt the resulting sound was too "analytical" and overly "crisp" for my own personal taste.

The one strange thing of note on Parts Connexion web site - all other gauges of this wire were "price/foot", but the 14 gauge was "price/meter".

Using this wire for the Helix IMAGE (Air) saves a significant amount of time spent removing the insulation from Neotech and VH Audio UPP-OCC wires
- well worth while :-)

Hope you find this useful

Regards - Steve

.




dbass
29 posts
 
Thank you Steve - I cannot say enough how I appreciate the time and efforts you have put into everything!
eugeniy
6 posts
 
Yes, thanks a lot, Steve. I think it is very important to make a direct comparison of the spiral and parallel arrangement of wires (all other things being equal).
    Steve, how far were the hot and neutral wires?
williewonka
3,075 posts
 
@ eugeniy - RE: " how far were the hot and neutral wires?"

I think you are referring to
One other thing I tried was using the 2 x 14 gauge wires as the neutral conductor (but NOT coiled)
To try this I used two sets of Helix speaker cables, but I did not connect the helix coils - I just used signal wire in one cable for the +ve and the signal wire in the other cable for the -ve

Both cables had the coils in place, but not connected and were 1-2" apart.

However, after trying the Air adaption (i.e. bare wire inside Teflon tube) on a few cables I now suspect that the proximity effect may have more to do with the insulation being used, than the issue of induction between wires.

It may be that having an air gap between the wire and the Teflon tube is enough of a gap, such that the two conductors can now be inserted into an expandable sleeve, side by side, without impacting sound quality, but I am yet to try this

I think that you can provide even more "spacing" by inserting each twisted pair conductor inside its own cotton sleeve.

This could make the Helix coil redundant, if this is the case.

It would certainly make fabrication so much easier with the advantage that the cable will now work with those amps that employ a symmetrical balanced design as well.

What about the rest of the Helix cables - can this approach be applied to Interconnects and power cables?
- It probably could, but I think using this new approach you would end up with a thicker and much stiffer cable.

And while it works for speaker cables,
  • power cables might not work as well because of the higher voltage
  • And a thicker interconnect cable might make installing the RCA problematic
WRT: what I observed i.e.
- this revealed more details, faster dynamics, but I felt the resulting sound was too "analytical" and overly "crisp" for my own personal taste.
Not everything in this particular scenario was "equal"
  • one cable used a 2 x 16 gauge twisted pair inside a teflon tube (i.e. for the signal wire)
  • the other use 2 x 14 gauge with each wire inside it’s own teflon tube (i.e. for the neutral wire)
  • this may have accounted for my observation
This was a test just to get an "idea" of what might be possible using the wires/cables at hand and my normal "rigour" was not applied, so I will reserve my "complete judgment" once I get to make up a cable using the approach described above - but it does look very promising.

The saga continues :-)

BTW - the support from everyone in this thread is greatly appreciated and is inspiration for the continued developments.

Regards - Steve



eugeniy
6 posts
 
   Very interesting. Thank you very much Steve for the explanation.
If I understand correctly, then your cables had a neutral MIL speck wire! If so, then replacing it with a better quality OCC + air insulation, gave such a result (most likely) as increased clarity and dynamics.
   As for the laying of the "+" and "-" wires, at least in the acoustic cable, many manufacturers make them separately and with good results, despite the increase in inductance.
And this assumption is even more interesting:
" However, after trying the Air adaption (i.e. bare wire inside Teflon tube) on a few cables I now suspect that the proximity effect may have more to do with the insulation being used, than the issue of induction between wires."

I think you will be the first in these studies again!))
Еugeniy
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