I would wait after the 400 hours burn-in mark before making any fine tuning to the design.
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
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Yes, I agree. At the price of silver wire I will not be making premature decisions. The first helix I built was with PC Triple C Cu. which I left in its insulation and has had now about 220 hrs. It appears to have stabilised but will not disturb it for now. It will be relatively easy to remove the signal wire, remove its insulation and place each wire in a PTFE tube and listen again. I have for some time suffered from an upper mid-range glare. Female vocals were mostly unlistenable. The CCC calmed that down to the point that we were able to listen to music that we once avoded. As previously mentioned I can now listen to more of my files which IMO is a huge win. The extra sparkle from the OCC Ag. is attractive and for my system may require combining a strand of CCC which is 19AWG Cu. with the 2 x 24AWG Ag. though I don't know yet how Cu. and Ag. in parallel will behave. |
@lemonhaze - I would NOT recomemnd mixing copper and silver wires for a single signal conductor - the speed of transmission of the two metals is different and the resolution/clarity will suffer Adding the 20 gauge Ag to the 2 x 24 Ag wires is a much better idea provided the quality of silver of the three wires is identical Regards - Steve |
@lemonhaze Thank You for your continued description on the perception of the CCC Wire. I have the perception that CCC Wire as a standard Cable configuration cleans up the presentation in a improved manner over a OCC Wire as standard cable configuration. When compared as a DIN>RCA Phono Cable the CCC Wire Cable Superseded a OCC Silver Wire Cable, the CCC was perceived as the wire that offered a preferred balance across the frequencies, notes and vocals were delivered with a improved substance to their envelope and was certainly the least smearing of the Details/Micro Details. I would suggest that the two cables can be compared at intervals, after experiencing extended use of the wire types being used. My HiFi System is nearly all in storage at present, which results in my delay to produce the Helix Cable Design. I have now offered a friend a selection of collected Wire to build the Helix Design for themselves. In my cache of Wire, there is a Stranded PC Triple C/EX which has a forged CCC Silver Coating on the Copper Core Wire. This is one I was going to strip down to the strands and attempt to make a Tonearm Internal Wand Wire. |
@williewonka, hey Steve I'm glad you responded to this confirming my doubt about Cu. and Ag. in parallel. The 20 AWG and 24AWG Ag. I have are all P/Connex solid bare and if I add the #20 to the mix will result in about 17.5AWG. As the interconnect stands it has an SOCT-18 as neutral which is smaller than your recommendation to have a thicker wire for neutral. Is this going to impact negatively on the performance? I hope not. My options with what I have on hand: Replace the helix coil with SOCT-16 or add an additional SOCT-18 If I'm not mistaken, according to Stephanie, that is the last we will see of the BARE 14AWG Cu. Any suggestions for a substitute?
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- 920 posts total