As the Advent of the CD slowly took hold, the Scorpio sales fell, and was dropped
as digital audio took over the entry level market. The Cyalene couldn’t evolve any
further, and the market could not take a tonearm even more expensive. This left the
MKII Aureus, and the Orion `name’. The decision was to drop the former and re-
Helius continued quietly for the next few years, developing its business in laser
and astronomical optics. We serviced arms and quietly sold sufficient to keep the
hi-
In the background however, were the seeds of an idea that became the Omega, singularly,
the most ambitious hi-
The MKII Omega has recently been launched as the new flagship arm. ...... And it is going from strength to strength. Helius is back with a vengeance.
Whilst the Orion still had a good following, ideas were brewing for a replacement.
Not being a business to go on offering modest tweeks and upgrades to aging designs,
we launched the Cyalene. This design was as innovative as the Orion had been. Shortly
after this launch, the fashion for gimbal designs passed, and people were asking
for a `mini-
As we became established, pressure grew to launch a competitively priced arm, and thus the Scorpio range was born. The Orion evolved into its MKII guise, the Aurum gave way to the Aureus, and in time, the Scorpio evolved into a MKII.
The Standard arm was the first model launched by Helius, however the Orion was actually
the first design on the drawing board. We needed to establish a reputation and following
before the more exotic design of the Orion was launched on a unsuspecting hi-
At the time, tonearms seemed the forgotten component within the hi-
Helius Designs was formed in 1982 following the demise of the Cambridge based company Tangent Acoustics, for whom I had developed turntables.