Experiencing the Helix One Mk3 – My Impressions

By Dohmann Admin

This piece is an English translation of the blog written by Dohmann Audio’s partner in Germany, Mr. Wolfgang Linhard at MY SOUND GMBH, one of Germany’s most experienced & respected experts in high-end audio. If you are located in Germany, we encourage you to reach out to Wolfgang. To read the original piece in German, click here.

It’s an absolute analogue dream! The Dohmann Helix One. What makes Dohmann Audio unique is the extreme effort they put into ensuring that unwanted vibrations are kept away from the signal path.

For example, in order to isolate the Helix One and Helix Two turntables from vibrations transmitted from the ground, Dohmann Audio uses a revolutionary Negative Stiffness Mechanism (NSM) from MinusK Technology USA instead of traditional suspension systems based on springs, rubber, plastic, foam, air or spikes, which have significant limitations. Applications are very sensitive to resonance. This significantly mitigates low-frequency vibrations up to approximately 100 Hz.

The special feature of the Helix One, however, is not that the turntable is on a MinusK platform, but that it is integrated into the system. It would by no means be ideal to place the turntable ONLY on an isolated platform and believe that it would work harmoniously with it. An example: The rotating plate mass has a natural frequency of 0.55 Hz at 33 rpm. The turntable itself produces unwanted vibrations generated by the very system that the developer wants to isolate from the outside world.

In addition, there is another problem that the high, heavy turntable systems also create themselves: Due to the high center of gravity of the turntable, which behaves like a toppling children’s spinning top and thus leads to precession instability. For this reason, simply adding a MinusK to an existing turntable is not the same as the Helix architecture.

In Dohmann’s Helix system, the mass of the entire turntable system is so cleverly distributed around and within the internal mechanism of the MinusK. In the Helix 1 and 2, the masses are cleverly distributed to lower the center of gravity and bring an unprecedented stability in the precession of the platter drive, especially by a low-lying mass larger than the platter mass itself. This is one reason why the Helix is “not just a turntable stuck on a MinusK”. The rotating platter mass is stabilized in a larger, low and evenly distributed chassis mass.

Mass turntables do not insulate very well. They try to use mass to absorb vibrations. Some demonstrations may show vertical stability because the structure is fixed in the vertical plane, but on flexible wood floors, these constructions suffer from horizontal movements. And other horizontal vibrations are also present in almost every environment (such as tectonic forces). This problem also affects laboratory instruments such as electron and atomic force microscopes, which, like a pickup, are very susceptible to vibrational intermodulation distortion.

In addition, higher frequencies often interact with the turntable’s own isolation system, causing further problems. To avoid this, Dohmann Audio worked closely with MinusK to develop a special version of this platform that is tightly integrated into the turntable chassis to enable a seamless transition from low to high frequencies. The insulation system is part of the overall mechanical structure, so there is no unplanned interaction between two different systems.

MinusK is the essential construction for minimising resonances in the analog system turntable, but of course that’s not all Mark Dohmann gives his Helix turntable. I don’t know of any turntable in which the use of the highest quality materials – titanium, carbon, copper alloys – contributes so specifically to sound shaping and optimisation.

And what is the point of all this?

Enormous stability and calmness in playback. A grandiose natural synthesis of precision, musicality and absolute silence. The music almost grows out of the completely black background. Everything is staggered deep and wide, like a three-dimensional acoustic painting. Instruments and voices seem to be positioned freely in the room, with a natural airiness that is rarely heard.

When it comes down to it, the Helix One unfolds an explosive dynamic without heaviness and the bass is both crisp and deep – never overemphasised, but with physical presence. This control is evident even in the most complex passages, without ever appearing even remotely analytical. When I put on my beloved Dean Martin “Dream with Dean”, I take my breath away, but not Dean Martin: His voice sounds so organically real, breathing, almost tangible.

And what has been looking for over 30 years is finally becoming reality, because strings and acoustic instruments have a real texture and you can hear the rosin on the bow, the wood of the cello, the metal of the strings. The music flows unhindered, without technical heaviness, with a sense of “simplicity” that – as an experienced music lover knows – is extremely difficult to achieve.

To put it in a nutshell:

The Dohmann Helix One, the essence of truth in vinyl sound.