Opinion 1

We all know that currently a turntable in a system of a music loving homo sapiens is not an extravagant add-on, but a fully-fledged, and I would even be inclined to say, a fundamental sound source. Yes, this is often associated with trying to follow the trends of certain groups, with being a hipster, but a turntable is something spiffy, and that is it. And if so, then it should not be considered strange, that such devices are proposed by each and every audio manufacturer, at least those who have some visibility in the market, even if they are not really associated with being able to create a turntable from scratch. Is this a good thing? Yes and no. In the first case, it is nice, that this makes the offering on the market bigger, but on the other hand, it is known, that those products were manufactured by some other companies upon order, what often results in making something visually appealing, with a desired name tag, but in context of true sound quality, not especially satisfying. But why am I mentioning this? For a very simple reason, a turntable provided to us by the Sopot based company Premium Sound, completely designed, made and measured by a Polish audio passionate. But what is it? With very big pleasure, I would like you to invite you to a meeting with the vinyl discs, something that is always a big spiritual sensation for me, played by the complete analog setup – and I am talking here about the deck and the tonearm – the BennyAudio Immersion II.

What can I tell you about our tested hero? In terms of the chassis we deal here with an interesting design, on one hand massive, but on the other not overly imposing, becoming a nicely looking forecast of a good sound, free from distortion introduced by parasitic vibration to the plinth. To be able to master that function, the plinth was made from a few layers of beech plywood, initially glued, but later also bolted together to increase the rigidity of the construction. Finally from top and bottom, this massive plywood element was encapsulated in 10mm thick aluminum sheets. But this is not everything that was done to stabilize the turntable and the tonearm. Inside this this support platform, between the mentioned aluminum plates and the top part of the chassis we have another damping layer in the form of a 3mm thick stainless steel element. As you can see, the stability and protection of the gramophone against unwanted artefacts was the main issue the designer of this device wanted to address. To allow the potential clients to perceive this in an even more positive way, the plinths can be veneered in any of the available patterns. Moving on to the tonearm, also being a proprietary development, preceded with may years of measurements and fine-tuning, I need first to mention, that it is placed in a thick layer of POM, which allows for ideal calibration. The arm itself has a length of 12.5”, is equipped with a exchangeable headshell, made from carbon fiber, and is of the unipivot type. The tonearm is made from a conglomerate of carbon fiber, similar to the one used for the headshell, aluminum and stainless steel. It’s cabling was done with monocrystal silver strands from Albedo and terminated with Furutech RCA plugs. The platter also does not leave any doubts that it is a significant element of the whole construction and was turned from 65mm thick POM and weighs 7.5kg. The bearing is a hydro-dynamic inverted ball bearing, with the ball made from tungsten carbide. The platter is belt driven by a brushless DC motor, placed inside the plinth. So this is how the Polish idea for a turntable presents itself, and for the test we used the Hana Umami Red cartridge, which lately does stir up the market.

So how did the tested turntable place its mark in my memory? Before moving on to the details, let me remind you, that I already had a meeting with one of the products of this manufacturer, albeit on a trip and a short one, but still. And I must tell you, that it already showed some interesting characteristics there, like ease of creating a very vast virtual stage. It was so intriguing, that I had hoped to be able to recreate this experience in a setting I know much better, in my system and in my listening room. And also allow it to show any other interesting nuances. Of course this was not a requirement that would determine good or bad assessment, because already during the first contact the music really enchanted with its projection, but it was just waiting for it to happen. And you know what, the Immersion II did not disappoint when it finally came to be. This time, to the mentioned ease of presentation we could add good support in mass and reaching down to the lowest registers. But let me mention that the level of saturation and weight of the sound did not cause something often liked by rookie amateurs of this sound source, a kind of sticky bass goop, overly sweet and round, but it was designed in such a way that the music was vivid, but had proper support, and yet did not lose any of the speed required to create that music. And it is not that I just like sound that way, but each and every music genre, even the most difficult to digest, to be interesting and enchanting must be appropriately ethereal and heavy in certain moments. And unfortunately, even the most appealing sweetness, or “obesity”, will turn it into a caricature. Of course, we live in a free country, so everybody can set her or his system in a way that she or he want it to, but when I try to describe the relevant elements of the sound, I need to refer to absolute values, as those are the same for analog and digital sources. And in this, very balanced sound esthetics, our hero remained. It was joyous, ethereal if needed, so there was no effect of putting an effort in playing, but also with good punch and saturation where required. Compared to my Clearaudio deck with a Dynavector cartridge, the sound had a minimally lower energy of attack, but with better fluidity and at a much higher quality level overall. But the latter should be obvious, as this is a completely different refinement league. However this difference could also be the result of different sound of the cartridges, but anyway did not present any issue when listening, it was just a tad different approach to reproducing tiny nuances. But how did this translate into the listened material?
I started the listening session from the jubilee edition of a compilation of may years of music of Aerosmith. Those are rock rebels from the time of my youth, what immediately means, that such a compilation will present different sound quality of pieces played one after another. And I am not writing this to complain, or critique them, but to show you, that the BennyAudio turntable was able to brilliantly differentiate this. Of course it kept the agility and aggressiveness of the sound, presented with a nice package of weight, but also presented that each and every piece, often even from the same long play, but recorded in a different session, had different characteristics. But please do not be alarmed, I am telling you about this, just to show, how this gramophone is able to show you the truth about recordings. The key aspect to its existence is the way of showing the played material, and with the set of characteristics I mentioned, it was able to involve me completely into listening to a band from days past through all three red vinyl discs, and did it absolutely hassle-free. It had the required drive, kick and rapacity, but also all the coherence attributed to this kind of sound source. And I assure you, everything happened at the highest level of attractiveness.
Another thing was the performance of Nick Cave in “Tender Prey”. This time it was about showing the timbre of the vocals of this charismatic artist. Just to verify what the mentioned earlier lighter approach to energy of the midrange and bass will do. And? Again, rest assured, everything was fine. Confirming my expectations, being the result of time spent with this turntable, the only difference I spotted in comparison to my setup, was, that everything was presented with a much better insight into the recordings, what only increased the expression of Nick’s vocals.
And finally the timeless standard in the form of the jazz story “Kind of Blue” by Miles Davis. How did that sound? In one word I could say it was a fairytale. Ever present mysticism, cut by the conversation of the brass instruments, sounded truly magical, due to the very well placed timbre, saturation and airiness of each individual sound. Was it just how it was recorded years ago? This is a completely different story, occluded by another mastering, that brought my edition to the market – I have this recording on tape and I know, that it is a different world. But the most important thing is, that even a recording, so robbed from its initial sound esthetics, can recall a similar joy, like a recording played from a Studer A80. And this only due to the engineering work put into the turntable by the owner of the BennyAudio brand. With slightly differently placed accents, resulting from different mastering approaches, it still recalls that magic aura from the time of recording. Palpable and withing reach, and this is why I so love this way of storing and reproducing music.

Does this approach to the vinyl world, coming from Poland and described above, have a real chance of being accepted by every music lover? In my opinion absolutely yes. And the reason for that would be the ability to avoid extremes, in the likes of overly accenting or even overloading the transparency of the virtual presentation in our homes. Additionally, I would like to add the skillful way of showing the technical nuances, very important to all kinds of music, including the work of the recording and mastering engineers, to its assets. And everything happens on such a high quality level, that I will not be exaggerating in telling you, that we are facing it directly, eye to eye, oops, ear to ear. But summarizing, the BennyAudio Immersion II is brilliant, in terms of design – I remind you about the feeling of solidity due to the nice proportions of the chassis – and in terms of the reproduced sound – this is what the last paragraph is about – a turntable, that I place in the High End segment without any doubts, after spending a dozen days with it.

Jacek Pazio

Opinion 2

It is not, and never has been, a secret that in our two people editorial office, Jacek is the go to person for all analog, while I fancy the files. But this does not mean, that files are not played by Jacek, and that I would not have an analog sound source, because it is quite the opposite, and we do try to convey that with what we write for SoundRebels. However each one of us does have his specialty field, but with higher or lesser regularity wanders off to other pastures, while sharing experience gained. So in the boundaries of this text, I would like to invite you to such a wandering, as during our vacation voyages, we encountered, in the Sopot based Premium Sound, a truly authorial, and fully Polish, turntable, the BennyAudio Immersion II, which finally arrived also in our test system. But when you are reading this introduction, this means that you have already gone through the “confessions” of Jacek, which I will just try to amend with my 2 cents, completely non-bindingly telling you what was captivating for me in the tested turntable from Gliwice.

The BennyAudio, which was presented three times (1, 2, 3) in Sopot, caught the eye a bit more efficient with its natural veneered plinth, but I must confess, that also in plain black, our tested hero is quite well fitted. In addition, due to the different color scheme, it was easier to avoid some subconscious similarities with the recently tested Dr. Feickert Analogue Woodpecker. Moving on to the main dish, it is worth noting that we deal here with a completely authorial construction, encompassing not only the deck, but also the tonearm, something you do not see often, as usually small manufacturers, putting their first outings on the market, prefer to put their confidence in well renowned constructions. So to keep things short, we deal here with a very compact and minimalistic design, which, due to the total mass, as well as the weight of the platter alone, can easily be qualified to the mass loader group of turntables.
The Immersion II is not a spontaneous variation of any “commercial” models, neither was it ordered in any OEMs (like Clearaudio to not look too far away), which would concentrate on the looks, but under the umbrella of sublime elegance, we have a full load of solid engineering knowledge and years of hand made prototyping, measurements and listening sessions. This is the reason the final plinth is a massive sandwich of CNC cut, glued and bolted together beech plywood, placed between two 10mm thick aluminum plates. In addition, below the top aluminum plate a 2mm damping layer and 3mm thick steel plate was placed. The tonearm, which was equipped with the MC Hana Umami Red for the testing, is a 12.5” unipivot, proprietary construction, with the wand made from non-magnetic steel, aluminum and carbon fiber, damped with oil and allowing for on-the-fly VTA adjustment. The internal cabling is made from monocrystal silver, and was provided by another Polish specialist, the Bydgoszcz based Albedo. The proprietary headshell was cut from 4mm thick carbon fiber. In the base of the tonearm we have the gold plated RCA terminals, of course accompanied by a ground pin, so the final sound of the BennyAudio can not only be modeled by using a different cartridge, but also using different interconnects. The platter, based on an inverted, hydrodynamic bearing, is really massive, as it weighs about 7.5kg and is 65mm thick. It is made from Polyacetal (also called POM or Delrin). It is turned by a round belt, placed around a puck of a brushless DC motor embedded in the plinth, and efficiently damped. The external PSU is very solid, and of the line kind, which is understandably important.

Moving on to the description of the sound of our guest, I must tell you, that was not disappointed with it, because it sounded exactly like I prefer, and at that, better than during the visit in Sopot, which did become the pretext for this encounter. So it was free from any irritating blurring of the lowest registers, which it held in tow appropriately for even the heavy sounds, with swing and great palpability, and a slightly sweetened, open and silky treble. But it does not go as far into the quite sticky and smoothening caramel like sound, like the Transrotor Dark Star Silver Shadow did (a turntable also using POM), the sound was akin that of the La Roccia Reference, if we are to compare to something else from the catalog of the German company, at least in terms of mass and energy of the sound. It has splendid drive and timing, inaccessible for the soft suspended competition, which may fare well in slower climates like “Minione” of Anna Maria Jopek, but are not able to catch up with the mad tempos driven by Metallica on “Hardwired… to Self-Destruct” or “72 Seasons”, really not allowing to follow the ideas and playing of the musicians. But this does not mean that the bass of the Immersion II is too contoured, and thus too crispy, or too light, because it is not. Its mass, energy and differentiation deserve high praises, and the true cherry on top is the ability to reproduce the immediacy of even the most neck-breaking damming of the sounds. I also did not notice any tendency to an artificial upping of the lower frequencies, or searching for speed where there is none. When a drummer reached for the drum brushes and started to delicately caress the snare drum or the cymbals, then the tested turntable did not try to harden or add weight to them, reproducing the ethereal airiness of such parties. But when a double kick came to sound, then we were informed about that without mercy. Additionally, regardless of the played repertoire, and actually when listening to it more and more, after a few hours of listening I came to the conclusion that the BennyAudio is very quiet, it is absolutely silent in the sound path, with which I mean, that it does not add anything to that, what comes from the speakers, so when something starts to hum in the speakers, then this is the hum of the disc itself, and not the result of a not well damped motor or a mediocre tonearm. Well, the tonearm. Here I will allow myself a very subjective digression, as being used to the “armored revenge of the plumber”, or the Kuzma Stabi S with the Stogi tonearm, moving to another turntable usually makes me wonder, if the tonearm fitted there is not too delicate, or even too rickety. And with the BennyAudio I did not have this dissonance, so kudos to the designer of this thing.
Equally intriguing is the midrange, which manages to favor the vocals, both female and male, due to a slight touch of extra saturation. The mentioned A.M.J. with the Immersion does rustle a little less, and in the voice of Diana Krall (“Turn up the Quiet”) the sweet, honey notes dominate above the raspier, whiskey ones, and Gregory Porter (“Take me to the Alley”) enchants with a velvet timbre, without becoming too bear-like. On one hand we could now mention about the stereotypical, “analog” coherence, but on the other I am aware, that such mental shortcuts can be very well suited to my own expectations, or even habits, so lovers of over-darkening, leading towards loss of resolution, as well as the opposers of such sound would be able to think, that this confirms their own expectations. Yet the Immersion II emphasizes on realism and strives towards reproducing the full extent of the timbres and energies dormant in each sound, so the final effect will depend on the cartridge it will be equipped with, as well as cabling, not even mentioning the phonostage. This is why the final lifting depends on the customer, and I will only add, that the highest frequencies do not give any reason for criticism. They are resolved, well accented, very clear and present the full picture, including information about the quality of the recording and the pressed disc, although the latter is in part (a significant part) attributable to the Hana Umami Red. However the riffs, drilling like a dentist’s drill, can reach the threshold of comfort, but if somebody did his or her best during recording, mastering and pressing, then the BennyAudio will inform us about that with a true feast of flashes and particles dancing in the light of the setting sun.

Maybe the BennyAudio Immersion II is a niche and almost boutique construction, which came to be only by the passion and stubbornness of its creator, Tomasz Franielczyk, but in terms of construction, and most of all the sound, it does not have any complexes compared to the more renowned competition, but it can sound in such a way that having the BennyAudio and something with a more recognizable label to choose from, we would be inclined to put our money where the sound is better, with a higher class. In short, this is another proof, that we do not know our own, Polish products, and I truly recommend to use your common sense, and when you are looking for a high quality turntable, please turn your attention to the tested unit. Listening is free, and the contact with BennyAudio Immersion II can become a shortcut to your audio nirvana, saving you not only time, but also money, which you can then spend on buying vinyl records. Which I wholeheartedly wish you would do.

Marcin Olszewski

System used in this test:
Source:
– transport: CEC TL 0 3.0
– streamer: Lumin U2 Mini + switch Silent Angel Bonn N8
– DAC: dCS Vivaldi DAC 2.0
– Master clock: Mutec REF 10 SE-120
– reclocker: Mutec MC-3+USB
– Shunyata Research Omega Clock
– Shunyata Sigma V2 NR
– Preamplifier: Gryphon Audio Pandora
– Power amplifier: Gryphon Audio Apex Stereo
– Loudspeakers: Gauder Akustik Berlina RC-11 Black Edition
– Speaker cables: Synergistic Research Galileo SX SC
IC RCA: Hijiri Million „Kiwami”, Vermouth Audio Reference
IC XLR: Tellurium Q Silver Diamond, Hijiri Milion „Kiwami”, Siltech Classic Legend 880i
Digital IC: Hijiri HDG-X Milion
Ethernet cable: NxLT LAN FLAME
Power cables: Hijiri Takumi Maestro, Furutech Project-V1, Furutech NanoFlux NCF, Furutech DPS-4.1 + FI-E50 NCF(R)/ FI-50(R), Hijiri Nagomi, Vermouth Audio Reference Power Cord, Acrolink 8N-PC8100 Performante, Synergistic Research Galileo SX AC
– Table: BASE AUDIO 2
– Accessories: Harmonix TU 505EX MK II, Stillpoints ULTRA SS, Stillpoints ULTRA MINI, antivibration platform by SOLID TECH, Harmonix AC Enacom Improved for 100-240V, Harmonix Room Tuning Mini Disk RFA-80i
– Power distribution board: POWER BASE HIGH END
– Acoustic treatments by Artnovion
Analog stage:
– Drive: Clearaudio Concept
– Cartridge: Essence MC
– Phonostage: Sensor 2 mk II
– Eccentricity Detection Stabilizer: DS Audio ES-001
– Tape recorder Studer A80

Distributor: Premium Sound
Manufacturer: BennyAudio
Prices
BennyAudio Immersion II: 56 900 PLN
Hana Umami RED: 16 990 PLN

Specifications
BennyAudio Immersion II:
Tonearm: 12.5″ unipivot, oil damping, VTA on tle fly
Motor: BLDC motor is embedded in the plinth
RPM: 33.3 / 45
Speed accuracy: +/- 0.35%
Platter: 65mm thick Polyacetal (POM)
Bearing: Inverted, hydrodynamic
Plinth: made by hand from several layers of carefully selected beech plywood, steel and aluminium
Power supply: 12V DC ultra linear
Dimensions (H x W x D): 20 x 49 x 30 cm
Weight: 29 kg (one arm, without power supply)
Available finish: natural veneer in matt or gloss finish; any vinyl veneers from an extensive colour and texture range; microplasma-anodized aluminum arm parts

Hana Umami RED
Body: Duralumin (A7075), gloss Urushi lacquer
Stylus: Boron cantilever, Microline nude diamond
Coil Impedance: 6 Ω
Output: 0,4 mV
Load impedance: > 60 Ω
Frequency response: 15-50 000 Hz
Output Balance: 0,5 dB / 1 kHz
Channel Separation: 30dB / 1KHz
Tracking weight: 2 g
Trackability: 70μm / 2g
Dynamic Compliance: 10 x 10(-6) cm/dyne (100Hz) Estimated: 16 x 10(-6) cm/dyne (10Hz)
Cartridge weight: 10,5 g