Duelund conversion to DIY Helix Geometry Cabling

The Ultimate Helix DIY Cable ? - I think so

This version implements everything I have learned/tried over the past few years

• 2 x 20 guage UP-OCC 5N solid Silver wire from Parts Connexion, each wire in it’s own teflon tube for the Signal wires, with a complete twist every 2" - 3"
• 2 x 18 gauge UP-OCC 6N solid copper from Parts Connexion, each wire in it’s own teflon tube for the Neutral wires
• Teflon tube with an internal diameter equivalent to a 14 gauge bare wire
• Absolute Harmony RCA plugs

I pondered this build for about 3 months because of the difficulties there might be attempting to wind a coil using a solid wire inside a Teflon tube - and not only one wire, but two wires, because this build would adopt the Double/Double approach.

• now - If you are using a wire with insulation, the insulation, just bends with the wire
• my concern was that the insulation would creep down the wire as I wound it
• leaving some part of the coil without Teflon tube around it and no way to remedy this problem.
• turns out, provided you hand wind the first 4-5 turns, then the insulation seems to stay in place and you can then use the drill to finish the winding process
• But you do have to proceed carefully because you have to control the feeding of the two wires very carefully otherwise you can get spaces or worse still, the wires coils on top of the previous windings.

The rest of the fabrication went without problem - I used a 3/16" (5mm) rod to wind the coil on.

Another concern was whether there would be sufficient improvement to justify the expense of using silver wire?

The answer came as soon as I plugged in the cables, bridging from my Bluesound Node 2i to my Bryston B135 amp - that uses...

1. Power cables are all 2 x 14 gauge UP-OCC bare Solid copper in Teflon tubes for the Live conductor with 2 x 12 gauge UP-OCC stranded copper for the neutral
2. Speaker cables are 2 x 14 gauge bare solid UP-OCC copper in Teflon tubes for the Signal conductor with 1 x 10 gauge stranded silver plated Mil-Spec for the neutral
3. The previous Interconnect I was comparing it to was 2 x 18 gauge solid UP-OCC copper in Teflon tubes for the Signal conductor with 1 x 16 gauge Neotech solid UP-OCC copper wire for the neutral

Well - this new Interconnect has surpassed all of my expectations..

1. image was the first noticeable improvement - larger in all directions with much more precise placement of artist and performers
2. Dynamics are faster and crisper
3. There is more body to the mid range - they sound "warmer"
4. lower frequencies have a lot more texture and precision
5. mid/upper range Details and Clarity are the two attributes that sort of crept up on me as I played through my audition tracks
6. there are far more micro details - i.e. the venue acoustics are more apparent and there are far more of the little echoes and reverberations of the concert hall.
7. But there is a more musical presentation about these cables - they just seem more complete
8. Listening at lower levels you still hear all the details without compromising details, musicality and emotion of the music.

This is probably the end of the line for the Helix, mainly because because I am all out of ideas as to where to take them next :-)

But boy-oh-boy - what an ending!

It’s good to end on "a high note" - pun intended :-)

Give them a try - for me it was worth it

Regards - Steve

Will I be able to use the Helix speakers cables with a Yamaha PC2002 power amplifier? 

It has balanced inputs but i don't know if its a fully balanced design.

RE: The Ultimate Helix DIY Cable - I forgot to mention that when winding the helix conductor ..

• I initially cut both the wire and the tubing to the appropriate length
  • I left enough wire to form a 1" tightly twisted section at each end of the conductor
  • so the tube was 2" shorter than the wure
• but when I finished winding the coil there was 4" of wire at the free end
• so you need to make the tubing longer than the wire
• e.g. On a 3ft cable I would recommend making the tubing 6" longer than the wire and trim to the correct length once would
• I believe that the wire forms a tighter coil than the tubing so you end up with excess wire

Other than that - break-in is proceeding very nicely.

Regards - Steve

@williewonka - I always wanted to understand the signal flow and what is claimed to be directional wire.  I know when you get to OCC quality the wire is drawn/produced in a certain way and there is a consensus that signal flow should follow that direction.

My specific question for DIY speaker cables - If you buy into this directional approach, should you have positive and negative runs in opposite directions?

I have used a lot of Furutech Alpha hook up wire and have followed their directional arrows.  

Can't claim that I can tell a difference, but this one kept me up thinking last night....

Marty