Duelund conversion to DIY Helix Geometry Cabling

+1 grannyring!

Well, @grannyring - now you’ve gone an done it - now I have to upgrade my IC’s - yet again :-)

For once - Rain started play - I decided to put a rainy day to good use and upgrade a set of interconnects with a second identical wire for the signal conductor - basically, half the approach grannyring has tried - he also doubled up on the neutral wires.

I have been auditioning a Helix IC with the 18 gauge Aolid Copper wire with AirLok from VH Audio. It competed favourably with the Solid Silver Mundorf wire at about 1/5th the cost. So today, I upgraded these IC’s with a second identical 18 gauge signal wire

The results were impressive to say the least and the cables are not even burned in at all yet.

Improvements...
- more precise artist placement within the image
- improved articulation of very small instrument details e.g. plucking guitar strings - they now "pop"
- improved clarity across the board
- overall sound is more lively and  less compressed

So what’s in the cable I am listening too?
- a Helix interconnect with ONE 16 gauge neutral wire (as per the web site)
- TWO 18 gauge VH Audio Solid Copper + AirLok insulation signal wires (NEW)
- KLE Innovations Absolute Harmony RCA plugs (as per the web site)

So far this cable is performing better than my IC’s that have a Solid Silver Mundorf wire + Cotton sleeve + Absolute Harmony RCA’s

For me, If I can hear improvements easily, then an up[grade like this is worth it - and this was noticeable from the get go. I didn’t have to play multiple tracks to discern a minute change - it was clearly audible. What Grannyring refers to as "a wall of sound" and I can see why

On the plus side, the solid copper wire is much more affordable than the silver.

But, will a dual Solid Silver wire with AirLok insulation sound even better?

I’ll keep you posted :-)

BTW - "Thanks Gran" :-)

Regards - Steve

I have just heard back from a person that implemented the Helix Speaker cables. He was very happy with them until he changed the amp to  a Vitus Audio SIA 025. 

The Vitus employs a "symmetrical" design approach (think 100% Balanced) from the inputs to the speaker terminals.  This means that both +ve and -ve terminals both carry "the signal" - a bit like a balanced power supply. It has no real neutral.

The manufacturer clearly warns users to never ground the black speaker outputs.

This resulted in a terrible sound when the Helix cables were used, because of the coiled neutral

I would have to believe that many other geometries are not suited to this amp, in particular some or the TOTL Cardas cables and perhaps Kimber Kable, because their capacitance is significantly hier than other speaker cables and this amp is a high current solid state design

This is the first time I have had anyone report problems with the Helix Speaker Cables.

So they are not for every system

Regards - Steve

Well - since we were having another day of bad weather and since I had found enough spare wire to try the full Helix "Double Barrel" as per @grannyring ’s formula, I figured what the heck and gave it a whirl

The cables I changed had a single strand of Mundorf Solid Silver/Gold for the signal with a single strand of 16 Gauge Mil-spec Silver plated stranded copper, as per the recipe on my web site. The cables were 27" long.

I completely de-constructed the mundorf cable and doubled up on the Mundorf Solid Silver/gold for the Signal and doubled up on the 16 gauge Silver plated Mil-spec as per grannyring’s modified version.

Verdict...
- well the full Double Barrel edged out the Double Signal cable that I tried yesterday.
- the fullness improved and the imaging was more spacious and accurate
- all tracks were more articulate.
- both cables seem to lessen the amount of compression that is a generally present in most recordings.
- the guitar work on Dire Straights tracks now seem to leap out of the speakers whilst maintaining a suitable balance with the rest of the instruments and vocals. This goes for most other well recorded rock tracks
- classical tracks seemed to now be performed in a larger venue thanks to the better imaging and I noticed more echoes and reverberations from the sides of the venue, which made the send of space more realistic 
- all tracks seemed to have a little more "body" compared to the Double Signal

The improvement between these two cables over the Single Cable made the upgrade well worth while.

Since the neutral wire is the more reasonably priced piece of wire, it makes upgrading to the full Double Barrel version a no brainer.

I could not really tell the difference between the Mundorf Wire and the VH Audio Solid COPPER wires, both provide stunning fidelity, so I would recommend using the solid copper at this time

The "Double Barrel" really is the best version of the Helix Interconnect cable to date.

I know that Grannyring has himself tried several versions of the Double Barrel Helix, so I would like to thank him for his efforts in coming up with a winning formula, it is very much appreciated.

If you already have the single wire version, then upgrading to the Double Signal wire version is the easier of these two upgrades and you will achieve about 60% of the benefits obtained from a full Double Barrel rebuild.

But - If you are pursuing Nirvana, then you’ll need Go for the full Double Barrel upgrade !
- so perhaps relegate that single cable to a second system, or sell to a friend - and start from scratch,
- it is so much easier than de-constructing an existing cable :-)

Again - "Thanks again Gran" :-)

Regards Steve