@ provst - my own personal approach when making changes to a cable is to introduce a single change at any one time. This allows me to assess the changes as they relate to just that change.
One of the original approaches in the Helix design was to incorporate a larger gauge neutral wire. and this approach was adopted across all cable types and it appeared to work very well.
Also, very early on I did try different wire types for the neutral on my interconnects, but they seemed to provide little, to no benefit over the larger gauge Mil-spec wire, so I never pursued it any further.
And remember that the Mil-Spec is silver plated, which contributes to it’s conductivity, which probably made it perform better than those other wires tried at that time - i.e. until most recently, the UP-OCC wire was used.
So when
@wig reported his positive observations after replacing the Mil-Spec neutral with Neotech Solid wire, I decided to try the same "approach" with a single wire on my interconnects. That proved to be successful.
I then went on to try that same approach on my power cables, but with a single stranded wire, which was also very "successful".
The Neotech UP-OCC wire was the first wire that made a noticeable improvement when used for the neutral.
Now, both my interconnects use a double signal wire and a single larger gauge neutral wire. Would a double neutral wire perform better? I believe it would, it’s just a case of BY HOW MUCH?
So now I have cables that are performing at (close to) the very top end of the "performance curve" and I believe I may be entering the region of "diminishing returns".
So I have to ask myself - will the amount of improvement achieved by adding a second neutral really going make enough of a difference to justify the expense and the effort?
I still have two source power cables that use the Mil-spec neutral and they sound great, but I might try this approach just to satisfy my own curiosity :-)
If money were no object I would invest in cables using UP-OCC solid silver for all conductors - they should provide the very best sound possible
WRT you statement...
When discussing power cords I seem to remember, that one of the prerequisites for the design was, that no power was running on the neutral side, only in the live wire.
I believe this may have been in context of the "safety aspect" of the Helix design and the fact that should the insulation on the neutral become compromised, it would not present a significant risk of electric shock because the neutral side IS (or should be) at zero vaults provided all the other attached electrical circuits are functioning correctly.
But the neutral IS required to allow the transfer of electrical energy from the live to "ground" and having a better "pipe" to accomplish that transfer would naturally result in better performance.
Regards - Steve
