2. cables
  3. 156742-1458

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


wig
lemonhaze
442 posts
 

@williewonka,   Thanks for the prompt reply. Yes this will be the start of my Helix journey.

Giving more thought to this I will now build 3 interconnects. One for digital as per your 'Ultimate' recipe and two for analogue, both using solid silver, one with 20AWG and the other using 22AWG.

It's the only way to truly know which is better for my system.

Regarding power cables, I will be able to experiment a bit more here due to cost. I have some Furutech cable which uses their Alfa 14AWG conductors which I will strip and use for light duty power-cables' neutral. These conductors are silver plated and are similar to the Mil-spec but I will also use the Neotech 14AWG OCC in PTFE for comparison.

williewonka
3,131 posts
 

@lemonhaze - The Furutech Alpha wire was one of the first wires I used as a Helix PC, because I had used the Furutech bulk cable for some earlier PC’s.

Having said that it was tragic to butcher such a great bulk cable, just for the conductors 😐

Whilst it is a pretty good wire to start with it’s main drawerbacks are

  1. it is stranded, which is far less capable than solid wired, but more flexible
  2. it is plated, which I have found to be less capable than unplated wires
  3. the alpha copper is not as fast (i.e. dynamic) as UP-OCC copper

But it is a very good wire, compared to OFC copper used in many cables, and a great wire to start with

Good luck with your builds

lemonhaze
442 posts
 

@williewonka, I have abandoned the idea of using the Furutech cable for neutral. After stripping back enough of the two sheaths to expose the 3 inner wires I found that they would definitely not hold their shape 🙄

I am shopping for price which is taking time, especially when some emails go unanswered. There are many Neotech dealers in Europe but most carry limited stock and favour carrying the fast sellers only so I am forced to shop around. I am in Ireland and thought buying from some of the UK outlets would be sensible but for most components they are more expensive!

Previous purchases show that I pay UK tax and then I get taxed again when it reaches Ireland and sometimes, depending on the weather, I get charged import duties too.

I ordered a few meters of this for an IC to compare to Parts Connexion's bare solid AG :

 

williewonka
3,131 posts
 

@lemonhaze - CCC copper is  preferred by some to OCC copper - I believe there is very little between them, so this wire should work well.

The dielectric constant of the Polyethylene insulation is comparable to Teflon

Polyethylene 2.25
Polyvinyl chloride 3.18
Teflon 2.1

 

Keep us posted as to how they work out

Regards - Steve

tecknik
487 posts
 

@williwonka. Yesterday I made  a one meter power cable for my music server using 2x 14g solid core occ copper with each run in a Teflon tube slightly twisted. 1 x for each neutral and ground. Both 4 meter lengths of ground and neutral wrapped counter clockwise  together, pure copper plated gold spades were crimped and soldered. I used a well broken pair of furutech ncf plugs

With a little over 14 hrs on the cable I’m pleasantly surprised at the SQ. This was my first PC and it took a 3 hrs to complete. 
 

This cable replaced furutech sp 55 n cable and already shows better imaging and inner detail.

I have previously made a couple dc cables with your helix formula with good results.

Regards 

Steve

More to discover