Reviewing the Döhmann Audio Helix RC1 Mk.III record clamp brings up some audio memories, like the time I almost destroyed a $40,000 Döhmann turntable by moving it from one equipment rack to another. The Döhmann was brought into my exhibit room as part of the Down Under Audio room share. I didn’t know about the Minus-K suspension, which requires the transport safety bolts be installed before it can be moved. So I moved it. For a solid hour I watched as a team reset the Döhmann while giving me some fierce side-eye activity, and thankfully I didn’t have to write a big check that day.
Words and Photos by Marc Phillips
I told Mark Döhmann that story years later, and to my surprise he laughed heartily. But here’s the real point of that story: the Döhmann turntable was the undisputed star of that show. We had some fantastic gear in the system, but everyone wanted to hear LPs. We featured a killer digital rig, from one of the most respected digital audio companies in the industry, and everyone still wanted to hear the turntable. After a while, so did I.
I should think about that turntable more than I already do. Perhaps my clumsiness causes me to block out that potentially tragic experience (we’re talking about tragic as it relates to melodramatic audiophiles such as myself), but I still remember how great it sounded on those three days of the show. At this point it’s difficult for me to name my high-end audio all-time favorites but yeah, the Döhmann could’ve made the top of my list. I still feel that way.
Nearly ten years later, I get a second chance with Döhmann. No, it’s not the Helix turntable, which is his current turntable model. No, it’s not a new Döhmann arm or a new Döhmann cartridge. It’s a record weight. At $2,800, it’s an expensive record weight–although I know some clamps and weights that cost more. But after spending a few weeks with the Döhmann Audio Helix RC1 Mk.III record weight on the J. Sikora Initial Max turntable with two KV12 arms, along with the $45,000 Allnic Audio H-10,000 OTL/OTC phono preamp, I feel confident in saying this record weight makes a clearly audible improvement and I have heard it over and over.
Inside the Döhmann Audio Helix RC1
I caught up with Mark at Munich 2024, in the Cessaro Acoustics room, and I talked to him about the Döhmann Audio Helix RC1. I’d been using it for a couple of weeks by then–Doug White of The Voice That Is had lent me one to evaluate. Mark was excited about the RC1 and explained it was one of the first record clamps or weights that could actually eliminate noise from three specific interactions during analog playback: the noise and energy from the cartridge in the grooves of the LP, the noise and energy from the bearing toward the spindle, and the noise from the spindle to the LP.
The Döhmann Audio Helix RC1 accomplishes this through constrained layer damping and the use of special damping materials within the chambers of the weight that address each source of noise and the direction in which they arrive.
For example, the RC1 controls the noise generated by the stylus in the grooves by these three design features:
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Large mating (damping) contact surface area for the new clamp design to work as opposed to using high force contact points like a spike or ball bearing.
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Metallurgy was specifically chosen for transmission purposes with internal chambers used for the critical damping materials. One material cannot provide the broad frequency spectrum needed – it needs to be a carefully selected group of materials.
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Compact design to lower the profile and impact on bearing precession.
The Döhmann Audio Helix RC1 controls the spindle resonances in this manner:
“We measured resonances through the spindle (stem) which originate in the bearing. These frequencies need to be addressed by different tuned materials and the upper section of the clamp has its own purpose-designed chambers to allow addition of specialised polymers.”
To isolate the record from the spindle, the following approach was employed:
“A third constrained layer ring system is used to separate the upper and lower chambers which under clamping pressure creates a dissipation plate (Finite Element Method) that is shaped carefully to provide an optimum boundary interface.”
Hence, the Döhmann RC1 simply reduces the noise floor, and the sonic gains consist of “letting the music flow unimpeded,” the goal of most noise reduction devices. With a record clamp or weight, however, the typical gains come from adding mass (weight) or flattening out the record (clamp). The RC1 is heavy enough to accomplish this as well, but it’s clear that those chambers of isolation inside the clamp contribute to an analog silence that is unmistakable–especially when you conduct quick A/B comparisons.
Sound and Listening Sessions
First of all, it’s incredibly easy to do quick, informal A/B comparisons with record weights as long as you have a steady hand. This might be one of those occasions, however, where I tell you not to try this at home. I’m on the clumsy side and I know there’ll be a day when I drop that record weight and an expensive chaos ensues. But that’s what I did the first time I used the Döhmann. I carefully put it on, and I listened. I removed it, and I listened again, all while the record was spinning. This was a slightly irresponsible yet informative first impression.
I was listening to the newly remastered Steely Dan Aja, a great record for careful evaluations. When I I placed the Döhmann weight on the platter, it reminded me of turning on the digital reclocker on a nice digital stack. Suddenly, music makes more sense. It’s not smeared or blurry. It’s real and in focus. In addition, I noted bigger dynamic contrasts in the music, aided by more air and space around the instruments. That, of course, led to an illusion of a slightly large soundstage. I call it an illusion because sometimes I feel like it’s just an illusion, but at the same time it’s a valid perception.
Normally I don’t like to make direct comparisons between high-end components, because of all the variables, but I felt I needed to compare the Döhmann to other weights and clamps I had on hand. It wasn’t enough to compare the Döhmann with nothing, because it easily won that contest time after time. Going back to the song “Aja,” there is that low grumbling synthesizer figure that is heard exactly twice during the course of a fairly long song. With the Döhmann weight, the sound of the synthesizer stretches horizontally toward the end of the last note–it develops like a small mushroom cloud between my speakers. Without the Döhmann, the note just sort of lays there, stuck in one spot.
That’s a huge difference, and a general argument in favor of record clamps and weights in general. But would those differences be as pronounced in comparison toward the lavish, almost 19th century Vienna sort of elegant three-pound weight that J. Sikora makes for their turntables? (Since this weight is included with the cost of the J. Sikora Max versions of their three models and doesn’t seem to be sold separately, I can’t make cost comparisons.) How about our own legendary Part-Time Audiophile record weight, which is made for us by Fern & Roby? I have all of these on hand, plus I think I have a couple of Clever Clamps in a box somewhere, and there’s a natural urge to play audio skeptic. Sure, most record weights and clamps work in a very audible way–especially when it comes to wavy LPs. It’s whether or not–and I already learned this many, many years ago–different types of record clamps and weights are “better” than others.
So here stands the Dohmann, at $2,800, and all these other clamps and weights are clamoring for attention, waiting for a shot with the champ. But there’s a twist, a sort of exit strategy for unworthy comparisons, where I remind you that these are clamps and weights represent a huge range in price. The performance-value ratio must be aligned correctly, without the huge strays from the norm that are often called “giant killers.” Everybody wants a giant killer, but in the real world they’re much rarer than you think.
So the first thing the Döhmann did was it absolutely destroyed the idea that going clamp-less and weight-less would be a viable option. But here’s the thing–so did the J. Sikora weight. Remember that quick little keyboard figure in “Aja”? It sounded pretty much the same with both weights. But the two weights did not sound the same in other ways, and that was an easy discovery thanks to the new Genesis G7 Minuet loudspeakers that just arrived last week. The Minuets have a rear-firing tweeter as well as a conventional two-way arrangement on the front, and there’s an adjustment on the back that allows you to go from SMOOTH to BRIGHT. The factory default is right in the middle, of course, but during the break-in period I found myself turning the knobs a couple of notches toward BRIGHT so that the treble would sound more open and relaxed. It took me half a day to realize it, but I wound up preferring the brighter tonality with the J. Sikora weight, and when I switched back to the Döhmann weight I started turning the knob back to its original factory position in the middle of the range.
What I’m saying here is that both clamps are superb and make a huge difference with the J. Sikora Initial Max analog rig. But there is a slight shift in tonality when you move between them. The Sikora clamp leans more toward a smooth, refined sound with the fabulous Minuets, and the Dohmann, to my ears, keeps everything closer to neutral all the way through the break-in period. The J. Sikora weight did sound better when the Minuets had 100 or so hours on them, but those two weights still maintained that gap in their overall tonality.
In other words, it sounds like it may be a matter of preference–what kind of tonality do you want? But after more comparisons, especially with all the other clamps I have sitting around (which offered varying degrees of improvements that were aligned with the cost and sophistication of each product), the Döhmann accomplished a set of results that none of the others could. First, the overall sound remained remarkably neutral no matter which changes I made elsewhere in the system. Second, the installation of the RC1 yielded the same time of sonic results that you’d notice in other types of noise reduction products such as grounding devices or even the use of certain materials known for reducing inductance.
In fact, that’s another weapon at the Döhmann’s disposal. Remember how the RC1 addresses the noise generated by the stylus:
“Metallurgy was specifically chosen for transmission purposes with internal chambers used for the critical damping materials. One material cannot provide the broad frequency spectrum needed – it needs to be a carefully selected group of materials.”
Since most of the advances incurred by the RC1 is the result of more sophisticated test equipment in the research lab, it’s very easy to measure differences that each material makes, as well as the location on the weight where it makes the biggest difference. This new test equipment also allowed Döhmann to detect the origin and direction of each type of noise.
Döhmann Audio Helix RC1 Mk.III Conclusions
“Great, now I have to buy a $2,800 record weight in order to get the most out of my records?” Yeah, pretty much. The purchase of the Döhmann Audio Helix RC1 Mk.III might have some practical restraints–you wouldn’t want to spend more on it than you did for your entire analog rig. But I did use the Döhmann with the $1,695 Music Hall Stealth, our 2023 Best Value winner, and yes it made the same type of sonic improvements that it did with the ten-times-as-expensive J. Sikora Initial Max. Blackness became blacker, more musical details came through and dynamic contrasts were increased.
The Döhmann Audio Helix RC1 Mk.III does raise some serious questions about analog rigs in general. For instance, if you’ve previously balked at using record weights and clamps because you don’t hear a difference, the Döhmann will undoubtedly change your mind. In addition, the success of this design opens up Pandora’s box–are we going to keep hearing substantial improvements in our hi-fi system if we take a look at every single thing in the analog playback chain? As an audiophile, you should already know that’s true.
As it stands right now, I’ve never heard a record weight or clamp make this much of a difference during A/B comparisons. A more apt conclusion can be drawn, however, if you simply live with the Döhmann Audio Helix RC1 Mk.III record weight for an extended period of time. When you take it out of your system, it should make you sad. That’s what happened to me, anyway.
Highly recommended.
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