* HELIX IMAGE (Air)

The Ultimate Helix Image AIR :2024 Update

This Update: January 2024.

There have not been any build updates since 2022

I can report that the bare wires inside the teflon tubes have shown only very faint signs of oxidation in the first six months and to date appear to have stopped tarnishing any further after two years - they are still very bright.

The following is a l
ist of the wires and gauges that I currently use for each cable type

Interconnects

Double/Single
  • Signal: 2 x 20 gauge solid UP-OCC solid Silver with each wire inside its own teflon tube
  • Neutral: 1 x 16 gauge Neotech solid UP-OCC copper with Teflon Insulation
  • KLE Innovations Absolute Harmony RCA plugs
Double/Double
  • Signal: 2 x 18 gauge solid UP-OCC solid Silver with each wire inside its own teflon tube
  • Neutral: 2 x 16 gauge Neotech solid UP-OCC copper with Teflon Insulation
  • KLE Innovations Absolute Harmony RCA plugs

Speaker Cable
  • Signal: 2 x 14 gauge solid UP-OCC solid Copper with each wire inside its own teflon tube
  • Neutral: 1 x 10 gauge stranded Mil-Spec with Teflon Insulation.
    • This wire snow available from Take Five Audio in several different colours. It had been out of stock for quite a while
    • it is my preferred wire because it is a little more mellow sounding than Neotech UP-OCC stranded copper wire.
  • KLE Innovations banana plugs

Power Cables
For heavy current devices like amps and power conditioners
  • Signal: 2 x 14 gauge solid UP-OCC solid Copper with each wire inside its own teflon tube
  • Neutral: 2 x 12 gauge Neotech solid UP-OCC copper with Teflon Insulation
  • Ground: 1 x 12 gauge copper in teflon from Home Depot
  • Sonar Quest IEC and Mains connectors - silver plated copper

For source components like Pre-amps and Digital Streamers
  • Signal: 2 x 18 gauge solid UP-OCC solid Silver with each wire inside its own teflon tube
  • Neutral: 2 x14 gauge Neotech solid UP-OCC copper with Teflon Insulation
  • Ground: 1 x 12 gauge copper in teflon from Home Depot
  • Sonar Quest IEC and Mains connectors - silver plated copper

For extension cables connecting multiple devices
  • Signal: 2 x 12 gauge solid UP-OCC solid Copper with each wire inside its own teflon tube
  • Neutral: 3 x 14 gauge Neotech solid UP-OCC copper with Teflon Insulation
  • Ground: 1 x 12 gauge copper in teflon from Home Depot
  • Sonar Quest IEC and Mains connectors - silver plated copper

For Fabrication details please see …

The Ultimate Helix IMAGE "Air" - With a little help from my friends

This Page is an overview of the very latest developments and updates to the Helix Cable Geometry
Last Update: 28 February 2022 : The Ultimate Helix IMAGE "Air" Interconnect cables.

Employing UP-OCC bare Solid Silver used for Signal Conductors in separate Teflon tubes

The Ultimate Helix IMAGE "Air" interconnect Double/Single
  • where the 2 x 20 gauge bare UP-OCC solid silver Signal wires are inserted into individual Teflon Tubes.
  • the Helix Neutral is a single Neotech 16 gauge solid UP-OCC wire with Teflon insulation

The performance of this cable is exceptional, providing more details, with a larger and more detailed image having more sense of "Space". Improved dynamics across the board, with many more textures being revealed

The previous developments
  • 12 December 2021: Helix Power cables are not suitable for use in countries that adopt a "balanced" power grid - such as Norway.
  • 4 November 2021 Fine tuning of the Helix IMAGE "Air" adaption to use separate tubes for each wire
  • 8 June 2021 Introduction of the Helix IMAGE"Air" Adaption
  • Update to the wire now used for the Helix Coil (Neutral) conductor to UP-OCC solid copper.

NOTE: For Helix Cable/Component compatibility
- please see HELIX Q & A

What Others Think
For unsolicited opinions of what other folk think of the Helix Cables please take a look at this link
Duelund conversion to DIY Helix Geometry Cabling

Dielectric Constant - what is it?
During previous developments, it was quite noticeable that selecting wires that had an insulation with a low
Dielectric Constant (Dk) for the signal or live wires only resulted in improved sound quality

Dielectric Constant (Dk)…
  • Dielectric constant, property of electrical insulating material (which is a dielectric) equal to the ratio of the capacitance of a capacitor filled with the given material to the capacitance of an identical capacitor in a vacuum without the dielectric material.
  • PVC: Dk = 4.0
  • Teflon: Dk = 2.2
  • Foamed Teflon (AirLok): Dk = 1.45
  • Cotton: Dk = 1.3
  • Air: DK = 1.1

So the challenge was: how to get the Dk as close as possible to the value of Air?

The adaption to the insulation can be found here…

The HELIX IMAGE (Air)


Applying this approach to the insulation of the Live or Signal wires of HELIX IMAGE cables resulted in improvements to every single metric we use to assess system performance…

  • Dynamics, Clarity, Details, image size, image focus, space around performers
  • outstanding clarity and details together with improved precision within the image
  • the depth of the bass was deeper with improved textures.

For Fabrication details please see …

I am currently using The Ultimate HELIX IMAGE "Air" cables and can report that the modifications have resulted in significant and easily discernible audible improvements over the older design.
I have listed a few options of wires that can be used for the signal and neutral wires in the detailed fabrication instruction, but the digram below shows which wires I use and for which components



System Cables 2
The original helix design concept was to eliminate the parallel conductors commonly used in conventional cable architectures in order to minimizes the noise, proximity effect and Skin effect to imperceivable levels, improving clarity and dynamic performance of the interconnect.

Since those early days, developments include the selection of advanced wire metallurgy, gauge of wire best suited to the task at hand and types of insulation in order to reduce noise to a minimum, which brings us to this moment in time.

The instructions on this web site demonstrates how these cables can be fabricated in the easiest and most cost effective manner in order to achieve extremely high levels of resolution that competes with the very best commercially available products for a fraction of the cost.

Previous adaptions to the HELIX Cable are courtesy of:
  • long time contributor on the Audiogon Forum: Member Name: Grannyring (i.e. Bill) - for his Schroeder Double Shotgun approach
  • Ernst of Austria - who first brought my attention to the importance of Dielectric Constant
  • Yordan & Evgeny of Bulgaria - who test numerous wires containing different metals and insulations
  • Todd (US) for developing the first bi-wire version of the Helix speaker cables
  • also, Ghislain (Canada), John (USA) and many others.

Will there be any further updates - probably, because there is always someone, like Bill, Ernst, Jordan and Evgeny that is looking to improve on the capabilities of “The Helix” cable geometry.


If you have any further questions on these upgrades just drop me a line.

Regards - Steve