@williewonka
Have you tried a Naked Solid Silver cable yet? Do you think you would need to replace the wire down the road?
Have you tried a Naked Solid Silver cable yet? Do you think you would need to replace the wire down the road?
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
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- 920 posts total
@aniwolfe - the quick answer - Not in the Teflon tube. I did use the Mundorf 2 x 18 gauge Mundorf Solid Silver + 1% gold in cotton sleeve for IC's a couple of iterations ago
based on those observations I believe the OCC copper provides superior performance over most solid silver wires available
I did try 1 x 18 gauge VH Audio solid silver wire with AirLok insulation in two power cables for my low power source components, which provided better sound...
Whilst it appears that a double strand of wire seems to be beneficial, increasing the number of strands beyond two does not appear to provide much more in terms of sonic performance - it just costs more
I do have a $LIMIT to what I am prepared to spend on cables and I think I may have reached it. You also have to consider diminishing returns
SO how much of an impact might the oxidation on the solid copper in Teflon be???
However - If anyone has the budget to try the VH Audio solid silver - give it a try - you'll probably get 20-30 years before the silver sulfide (i.e. the black tarnish) impacts sound quality. Hope that answers you question :-) Regards - Steve |
There’s SOST-12 listed on the official site of Neotech, though pretty much nobody would like to import such 12 gauge UP-OCC solid silver wire for obvious reasons: http://neotechcable.com/product9.php https://wp.neotechcable.com/up-occ-hook-up-wire/ So far I could find a couple of online stores with SOST-12 and we’re talking about 3,500 RMB / meter here: https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=630686893004 And then it’s NT$11,033 / meter (almost 400 bucks) here but as usual a certain agree of wiggle room could be expected: https://www.ruten.com.tw/item/show?21821076194416 Finally it’s kinda like "priceless" on this Polish site: https://diraudio.pl/diraudio-jako-autoryzowany-partner-marki-neotech/ Like what Steve mentioned before, it ain’t exactly practical to go for a price range like that unless we could somehow justify the expenses. Maybe an "extremely resolving" system would still benefit from such a substantial investment, though going THAT far might not be worth it. When it comes to expensive parts, Duelund might not have the best wires out there but their CAST silver / copper caps should be fantastic choices as bypass caps. I guess that we should also pay quite a bit of attention to the PSU side once our cables are mostly taken care of. |
@massagevermont - Chris - all I do is take a Utility knife like this one Internet’s Best Snap-Off Utility Knife - Regular - Set of 3 - Belt Clip - Retractable Razor Knife Set - Box Cutter Locking Razor Knife, Utility Knives - Amazon Canada
Hope that helps - Steve |
- 920 posts total