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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
mawe
34 posts
 
XLR ?
smooth and cheap - Vampire gold plated
high resolution and neutral - ETI Kyro
cheap but a bit edgy - Neutrik silver plated

I‘m not a big fan of 18g for IC cables.
There is a reason why all high end cable manufacturers use a multiple of 24g

just my 2 cents
divertiti
223 posts
 
@mawe Thanks, can you elaborate on why multiple of 24g sound better than 18g? Wouldn't thicker conductor offer lower resistance?
mawe
34 posts
 
@divertiti
there is more than resistance...
electrons travelling on a conductor...
there is an effect, called skin effect, which basically means, that higher frequency are manly travelling on the outer surface of a conductor and lower frequency more inside a conductor.
For audio frequencies 20Hz to 16kHz the most balance is achieved with wire gauge of 24 (0,5 mm dia).
With thicker dia this gets out of balance.
Some people like this kind of „sound“ more.
Im my opinion this is very much depending on the quality of your equipment. If it has a tendency of being „sharp“ or edgy or on the lean side, thicker wire will „cure“ or „tame“ this at the expense of loosing micro details.
To reduce resistance many cable companies use multiple runs of 24 AWG wires. My max wire gauges are:
IC 22 AWG
SC 20 AWG
PC 18 AWG

For balanced IC (only when your sending and receiving equipment is truly balanced/ symmetrical) I prefer the VH Audio receipt with 2x 24AWG for + and - signal. GND can be 18 AWG.

The Helix design is superior for unbalanced RCA ICs, as ist reduces noise and crosstalk.
But for balanced ICs noise is not an issue and keeping + and - separated as with the VH Audio receipt makes more sense for lower capacitance and crosstalk and inductance.
mawe
34 posts
 
BTW,
this „skin effect“ together with the insulation material is responsible for high frequency performance of the cables.

PVC coated conductors sound more „muffled“ since PVC has a high dielectrics and „ restricts“ or „ interacts“ with the electron flow on the surface of the conductor.
This gets better with insulation material which has a lower dielectrics constancy like PE, even better PTFE, more better foamed PTFE, cotton and best is an „air gap“, slimmer wire in bigger PTFE tube.

This is being discussed here now for some time and people having positive results.
Especially when using thicker wire it is even more important to reduce the effect of the insulation dampening effect on the outer surface of the conductor.

In one of my first posts here I brought this idea up to use a PTFE tube.
grannyring's avatar
grannyring
6,438 posts
 
Multiple 18 gauge simply does not sound as good in power cords as we have been there and done that. Not in the Helix design. Not even close in our listening tests. Same is true with ICs and speaker cables using the Helix design. Multiple 22 gauge does not sound as good as two 18 gauge. Been there, done that with my own line of cables and now the Helix. In my own Duelund line 16 gauge sounded better than 20 gauge for ICs. 12 gauge sounded better than 16 gauge for speaker cables.

With the Helix design the same holds true. Just because others do something different does not make it right or sound better in this design. The proof is not just found in white papers or books, but also through the time consuming and laborious process of building and carefully listening over time. We have done that and put the hours of hard work into this process.

No shortcuts here, just real man hours, hard work, careful listening over break in time, money and a big dose intentional curiosity.
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