Munich 2017

Döhmann Helix 2 Turntable Debuts at High End Munich 2017

Michael Fremer  |  May 27, 2017

Audio Union's Rumen Artarski said that this first sample of the new Döhmann Helix 2 was finished "hours" before packing and shipping from Sofia, Bulgaris to High End Munich.

What the new 'table lacks in "bling" is more than compensated for by the technology packed into its standard rack sized chassis. Unlike the bigger Helix 1, the new Helix 2 will fit on a standard sized rack shelf. What's more, while the 1's integrated Minus K platform caused the unit to "bottom out" when a record was put on the platter and the record weight applied, the new 'table is rock solid, yet it too has an integrated Minus K.

The new 'table features a single arm board, while the 1 has 2 but like the Helix 1 the platform is suspended and isolated from the integrated motor. The new 'table features the same platter and dual belt drive system used on the Helix 1 but here the motor supply is built-in instead of being in a separate outboard chassis. Artarski made clear that the drive system is equally sophisticated.

Ergonomic improvements over the Helix 1 include the ability to adjust the Minus K using a top-mounted wheel instead of having to access the back of the chassis and a front panel mounted LED that monitors the Minus K platform's height.

I only had time for a quick listen but I liked what I heard! The new 'table complete with the same Schröder CB arm available on the Helix 1. Here it's standard (for now the Helix 2 is not available without the arm): turntable and arm will sell for $25,000 (the Helix 1 without arm costs $37,,500).

There soon will be a video posted showing the 'table in action and Mr. Artarski's description. It will be among a number of turntables debuted at High End Munich 2017. The holes atop the chassis are access points to level the suspended arm board. Once the 'table goes into production they will be covered by a product badge.

COMMENTS
davip's picture
Submitted by davip on Tue, 2019-10-22 02:55

I was ready to pull the trigger on this TT -- finally, it seemed, a modern-day turntable manufacturer taking vibration seriously (as opposed to the bolt-the-motor-to-the-plinth or the half-ton-of-aluminium brigades) -- and then I saw Fremer's Munich 2015 video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRGLXOFQKb4).

Extraordinarily, despite the amazing Minus K tech incorporated in this TT, they put the motor ON the subchassis. Listen to the video at 4'.05'', where the Dohmann rep describes the motor being on the same plane and "...moving with the suspension", and then again at 4'.25'' where he describes this motor being "...off-the-shelf" and "y'know, nicely made". For real?! A cheap-ass stock motor plonked on the subchassis that bears both the platter and arm? This rep describes the Helix as being effectively immune and isolated "...from ground-based vibration", but this is smoke-and-mirrors as, while the Minus K's usage in SEM and EFM microscopy speaks to the utility of this anti-vibration tech, the principal source of vibration in a turntable is not 'ground-based' -- it is WITHIN the turntable, i.e., the motor, and thus this groundbreaking tech is largely bypassed.

Watch the appropriately-named video 'Famous Minus K Wine Glass Demo Described' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evAx-1rv4lQ), and marvel at how how this extraordinary device isolates a filled wine-glass placed upon the device from the stated earthquake-level vibration beneath it. Then wonder how this amazing device would work if the vibration source were placed UPON the Minus K along with that wine glass, as in the Dohmann Helix.

Show me a Minus K video with both the undisturbed wine glass AND the vibration source on the Minus K and I'll buy it (literally), but this Dohmann TT is not, at least per the Company rep's description, implementing the Minus K in the way that it was designed to be.

This is the Rega model of isolation...

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