Duelund conversion to DIY Helix Geometry Cabling

@wyan001 - the Absolute Harmony plugs are extremely low mass with an extremely small contact area and use a pure copper and a heavier layer of silver coating than most other plugs and they also have a very different impedance to other plugs, so I would not assume other plugs will perofrm close to them just based on metalurgy

Regards - Steve

wyan001,

I agree with Steve as I've tried a number of different RCA's (all more expensive than the KLE's), & none of them have been as good in regard to SQ. That said, I have not tried the AECO.  

A friend who produces their own cables has a preferrence for for KLE Harmony Copper and Copper Wire.

When they produced a set of Cables for myself, I supplied the Silver AECO RCA and there was not any comments made on a significant perceived change to the SQ when they were hooked up to the producers system.

The Wire used was D.U.C.C and this had been perceived as having a added richness when compared to PC CCC.

The Silver RCA, might have impeded the full richness of the Cable being delivered ? 

I have 2 pairs of Helix speaker cables from which I am driving a pair of Maggie 1.6 in bi-wiring mode with excellent results.

Still using the Duelund cotton live wire, I was prepared to invest in making the UPOCC upgrade when I checked Steve’s latest mod on his website. The airgap mod is a logical one in this whole Helix development scheme of things.

I am prepared to jump from the Duelund live wire to the dual UPOCC airgap mod but before I have some questions about cable oxydation and handling.

- How does long term oxydation affect the sonics on a solid core wire? We all know how it can be on a multistrand cable but as for a solid wire, anyone has info on this?

-Would you advise to use latex/cotton gloves when manipulating to bare copper so any contaminants present on your fingers won’t end up on the bare wire?

-Would it be beneficial to use Deoxit on the solid wire before inserting it in the PTFE tube? Not sure how to technically achieve this but it could be as simple as spraying the product on a shop towel and run the wire through it while inserting it in the PTFE tube.

- Aside from sealing the PTFE with hot glue and a piece of shrinktubing, what else can be done to prevent wire oxydation?

Cheers,

Daniel

@norco74 - I didn't bother with any special handling or cleaning because I wanted to see how the bare copper fared without it.

There as an initial very slight loss of brightness of the copper, but in the last 6 months the colour has not changed at all - I assume because the oxygen inside the Tube has been used up.

I have a "sacrificial" piece of the same bare copper wire on the audio stand for comparison and that has tarnished much more

I also looked at the ground wire that connects to the electrical panel and it too is still fairly bright after 6 years, so I am pretty certain that sealing the tube will prevent further oxidation, because teflon does not let the oxygen in the air through to the copper.

If you do want to take extra care then Deoxit will do just fine.

Regards - Steve