Duelund conversion to DIY Helix Geometry Cabling

@williewonka, Some kit arrived earlier than expected, for a change, so I made up an IC using 2 x 24AWG solid AG in separate ptfe tubes with SOCT-18 for a 3.5:1 neutral with KLE Absolutes.

My previous build used the twin 19AWG CCC that pindac introduced. I now have about 105 hrs play time and they sound really very good. A huge upgrade which left my wife and me with big smiles. 

I removed the CCC pair and replaced them with the 'recipe' above. Straight from my grubby hands and into the system so no run time at all. We heard a cleanly detailed, open sounding, leading edge/transient monster. I heard percussion coming from places not aware of before. It was providing more important information than the CCC.

We both felt that we heard more upper register detail with the overall gestalt a little on the lighter side, which did not surprise me. After some time I left the 24AWG Ag in place between the Oppo and line-stage and then connected the CCC's between the line-stage and amp. Hellooo, head and foot-stomps.

I understand that the pair of AG IC's will change with more play time but the sound right now has improved to the point where before, one of us would dive for the volume control with screwed up face because of screechy female vocals. Not so much now. Some tracks, previously unlistenable became tolerable. Large orchestral works, normally congested and brash on my system were now better rendered and instead of skipping allowed us to hear the musical intent, and if still not pristine was at least listenable.

Prior to these helix delights I could listen only to about 20% of my files, now I think it's closer to 50%. This alone to me is worth the cost of entry 😎

Next build will be 'standard recipe' : 2 x 20AWG bare AG in tubes with 3.5:1 SOCT-16 neutral.

NOW for the biggest 👍 My wife, always supportive, is now actively encouraging me. This morning I got the " building any more?" glint.

@toolbox149, I am hearing what you described and believe it or not, after last nights  session, considered adding a third 24AWG AG strand which would end up about 19AWG and easy enough to do.

Steve has tried, I think, 4 strands in parallel and claims no improvement heard, which gives me reason to be cautious.

However looking at what Kimber has done they seem to be successful with their Varistrand cable using multiple different gauges. I am now considering paralleling 26, 22 and 18AWG all in individual tubes together giving 1.28sq. mm, close to 16AWG overall.

Any brave souls out there willing to buy all that silver and experiment?

@pindac - apologies in the delay of my reply.

Regarding...

The Power Amp’ EE has asked for all devices to be in use, to be made available for the final testing to take place, as well as be supplied XLR Cables that can have a Earth Shield detached at One Connector.

The query is, does the Helix Design lend itself to this request from the EE.

I was not quite onboard with the EE’s inquiry, when questioning me about the Cables to be built, I am interested in meeting the request from the EE, and to have a Cable available with this as a option, which will be able to have a shield detached.

Unfortunately my practical experience is limited to single ended designs, because I have no components that share the balanced XLR architecture.

However I have some limited experience with XLR connectors and cables.

What the EE appears to be referring to is a floating shield approach.

For this to be effective there must be at least two llayers of seperate shielding

• Where the inner layer of shield is connected to the ground pin of the XLR plugs at both ends
• and only one end of the outer layer of shielding is connceted to the ground pind of the connector,
• and the other end is not connected.
• the thought is any airborn RFI is wicked away to the ground of the component where the shield is connected
• this supposedly prevents the noise from entering the signal path and being amplified by the following "stages" of amplification
• the connected plug must always be inserted into the "Source" component

The main issue these days is that many source components are of an insulated design (i.e. they have a two pin plug, so they are NOT grounded, which means this approach will be of little use because the noise is not wicked away.

With the design of the Helix, the helix coil "interupts" any external RFI

• preventing noise from entering the signal wires, much like a faraday cage
  • making a seperate shield unessesary.
• the Helix even works with connecting between a turntable and a phono stage on many systems
  • but I am aware of a couple of systems where noise was still an issue for some reason
  • these had to have a heavily shielded convetional cable

This link may help your understanding of where the "EE" is coming from 

XLR Conections

Hope that helps - Steve

@tecknik - apologies for the delay in answering the following

Williewonka@ what’s the influence of sound by the twisted neutral and ground”does a tighter twist over the live wires increase focus, air or timber of the ac cable.Williewonka@ what’s the influence of sound by the twisted neutral and ground”does a tighter twist over the live wires increase focus, air or timber of the ac cable.

I have not observed any changes in perofrmance when altering the diameter of the helix coil.

I intially believed there may be some benefit to having a larger coil, especially WRT speaker cables, which carry a higher voltage than interconencts, but subsequent work with power cables proved this supposition to be incorrect.

I do still believe that increasing the ratio of the Helix neutral to the signal wire, i.e. resulting is more turns, on those cables used between the turntable and the phono stage, could help reduce the amount of noise present on SOME OLDER systems.

• But I have learned there are many systems that experience no noise at all using the more conventional 3:1 ratio.

Hope than answers your question

Regards - Steve

No problem williewonka,

Have you tried wrapping the live wire in copper mesh before winding the neutral and ground around it with the male side grounded?
 

would this increase capacitance or resistance effecting the dynamics.

The thought of wrapping the live with a copper wire mesh popped in my head but given the amount of work it will take I wanted some thoughts before I proceeded.

thanks ,

steven