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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
provst's avatar
provst
16 posts
 
@mawe
Excellent - thank you so much. That was also my guesstimate based on your previously described observations regarding sound quality vs AWG.

Your input has been highly informative and much appreciated.

@williewonka 
Thank you for explaining the road from initial trials to where you are today. That nailed a few uncertainties and corrected some misunderstandings.
So far - we are observing tremendous gain in sound quality based on your cable design. Now we just need to extract the final drops of musical enlightenment choosing the best wires for our individual systems.
mawe
34 posts
 
Update on making a helix power cord:

Wonder, if someone has done it and if so, what is your experience?

What I did today:
A 1m long 230V power cord tested on my DIY linear power supply for my streamer and DAC, which delivers 12VDC and 5VDC. The DAC uses only 8 VA and the streamer less than 4 VA.

L =
2x 16 AWG Neotech OCC solid core in PTFE twisted together (2 x / 1cm). Wrapped plumbers PTFE around it.
Added a cotton sleeve on top.
Put this into a braided copper shielding, which is connected to mains plug for drainage.
N = 2x 2.5sqmm Jantzen silver plated copper stranded wire in PTFE and same for GND coiled around a 8mm Aluminium rod. Slides over the “L” conductor. It is a very tight fit.

Plugs are SonarQuest Silver plated with clear housing.

Whats new compared to my former PC with basically the same configuration is the shielding of the inner L conductor by using the braided shielding.

I think it is better than without the shielding. Seems to have a quieter background. No loss of dynamics.


williewonka
3,075 posts
 
@mawe - my thoughts...
  • the shielding should "drain" any EMI generated noise created by the current passing through the LIVE conductor
  • this should result in less noise being induced into the neutral conductor
  • this should result in a quieter background
  • the same shielding technique is used on each twisted pair in CAT8 cable, to achieve higher bandwidth transmissions
You might want to try the same thing, but apply the Air adaption i.e.
  • 2x 16 AWG Neotech BARE OCC solid core wire inside a teflon tube
  • then insert that assembly inside a cotton tube
  • and finally insert that assembly into the shielding
  • NOTE: do not use the teflon tape

This would improve the overall performance and probably improve on the quiet background

I assume you are only connecting the shield at the mains plug end of the power cable (i.e. a floating shield) and NOT at both ends.

Keep us posted - steve

Post removed 
mawe
34 posts
 
@ Steve,
thx for your thoughts.

I was surprised about the positive effect of the “shielded L” conductor, since the LPS only draws approx 60mA at 230VAC. This is a low current load on 2x 16 AWG wires and the induced EMI should be low. 
I would expect, that the positive effect could be even greater on higher current load situations, ie higher wattage devices.

Yes, the shield is only connected on the mains plug, not the IEC side.

2 reasons, I did not apply the “Air adaption”:
- safety / with having a conductive Metall shield on the L conductors I want to be on the save side.
- on my LPS for the digital audio components I do not favour the “naked” sound, could “sound” too lean.
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