Duelund conversion to DIY Helix Geometry Cabling

I have 2 pairs of Helix speaker cables from which I am driving a pair of Maggie 1.6 in bi-wiring mode with excellent results.

Still using the Duelund cotton live wire, I was prepared to invest in making the UPOCC upgrade when I checked Steve’s latest mod on his website. The airgap mod is a logical one in this whole Helix development scheme of things.

I am prepared to jump from the Duelund live wire to the dual UPOCC airgap mod but before I have some questions about cable oxydation and handling.

- How does long term oxydation affect the sonics on a solid core wire? We all know how it can be on a multistrand cable but as for a solid wire, anyone has info on this?

-Would you advise to use latex/cotton gloves when manipulating to bare copper so any contaminants present on your fingers won’t end up on the bare wire?

-Would it be beneficial to use Deoxit on the solid wire before inserting it in the PTFE tube? Not sure how to technically achieve this but it could be as simple as spraying the product on a shop towel and run the wire through it while inserting it in the PTFE tube.

- Aside from sealing the PTFE with hot glue and a piece of shrinktubing, what else can be done to prevent wire oxydation?

Cheers,

Daniel

@norco74 - I didn't bother with any special handling or cleaning because I wanted to see how the bare copper fared without it.

There as an initial very slight loss of brightness of the copper, but in the last 6 months the colour has not changed at all - I assume because the oxygen inside the Tube has been used up.

I have a "sacrificial" piece of the same bare copper wire on the audio stand for comparison and that has tarnished much more

I also looked at the ground wire that connects to the electrical panel and it too is still fairly bright after 6 years, so I am pretty certain that sealing the tube will prevent further oxidation, because teflon does not let the oxygen in the air through to the copper.

If you do want to take extra care then Deoxit will do just fine.

Regards - Steve

Hi good folks,

I use double neotech SOCT-14 in tube in helix config for speaker wires for my bass/mid drivers. I use a great active crossover/eq so the frequency response does not matter too much as I can just adjust everything appropriately. When I installed the helix I had to dial in a low-shelf filter, meaning rising eq from around 200 - 1000Hz, in total 2,5db if I remember correctly. It sounded fantastic. After several 100 hours (I estimate 300) I have gradually turned it down and I am finding I have to remove it completely now. I can only see 1 reason, burn-in of the cables, everything else is burned in a long time ago. Have anyone else experienced this, that the mids takes a long time to open up and gain level? Naturally one could propose my ears are extremely bad, but it is not my impression. Unfortunately though I have a umik-1 I don’t have measurements, but i often run a sweep from bottom to top to confirm my impressions. When I adjust anything it is always based on many separate listening sessions.

@svampebob - I can’t say I have noticed an abnormally long break-in with speaker cables, particularly if they use the Air Adaption, but it is possible that the Bananas (or other connectors) are what is causing an overly long burn-in.

I mention this because the KLEI RCA’s sound best after 300-400 hours and I believe my initial pair of speaker cables took 200-300 hours, but that was back a couple of years now, so I am working from my less than perfect memory here.

I have reused all my plugs, so the break-in times of any more recent cables I have built can vary and cannot be considered a "benchmark".

What I find interesting about your post is that you have managed to isolate a specific range of frequencies that seem to be impacted by break-in.

Whereas, what I listen for is clarity and details in the venue acoustics, which in turn are responsible for changes in imaging, specifically artist focus and placement

Definitely something to ponder for the future.👍

Thanks for the update - Steve

Just an FYI - SINGLE ENDED or XLR ?

I just received these observations regarding XLR vs. Single Ended Interconnects...

I have compared XLR and RCA Helix Image interconnects. 

My XLR cable uses Neutrik NC3MXX connectors, each pair (one for +, one for -) of UP-OCC Neotech 18 AWG copper wire is twisted inside a teflon tube. RCA cable uses KLE Absolute Harmony connectors and two Neotech UP-OCC copper wires 18 AWG are inside their own teflon tubes.

 

Verdict: RCA version is better. I don’t know if it’s separated tubes for each wire or connectors but single-ended interconnect just sounds more musical for me. With balanced cable the sound is more straightforward and less refined.

But it’s not bad, of course.

I actually believe which cable type is ultimately superior is in fact due to the internal circuitry of the components being connected.

But as others have observed - there is very little difference between the two

I think both cable types perform to very similar levels and if you want the absolute best sound - then both cables should be built and tried in your own system before coming to any conclusions.

Regards - Steve