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
Sorry Tecknik. I’ve built about 20 pair of ICs using the double helix method. The first 4 used PFTE tubing. All subsequent tubing was vinyl. Having performed some very serious evaluations, my opinion is there is absolutely no difference in sound quality between using PFTE tubing and the vinyl tubing. YMMV
Tim |
@toolbox149 - I have used quite a bit of the Jupiter wire, including the silver, but mostly the copper. I have made Chris VH’s ICs using the silver wire but eventually replaced those with Furutech bulk OCC IC cables. However, I am currently using braided speaker cables made from Jupiter copper-in-cotton wire, which sound great in my system. Other wire they offer that I have had really good success with is their 8 x 28awg, 6N copper cable with cotton insulation. I have made IC cables using that wire and those sounded so good an audio equipment manufacturer purchased a pair from me for use in their own system. If you look at that cable, you will see that four of the wires are orientated in one direction and four wires in the other direction so you can group them accordingly to make one positive and one negative aggregate grouping. I used expensive Furutech XLR connectors on the ICs I made, but have since been using less expensive DH Labs connectors on my cables, that IMO sound just as good. |
