This is our review of the HD2
Firstly, we're just going to mention that these guys manufacture for a lot of the popular, more expensive brands that you will see closely resemble it.
You can see features here on the HD2 that you cannot find without looking to the higher priced models in the $4500-$6000 range.
Our absolute favorite part of this machine are the cables. We have never found a smoother cable machine and we have been selling all the top brands found in commercial gyms for 20 years.
The first thing we do when a customer looks at this gym is - we put the cable handle in their hand, have them pull on it and see if you’ve ever felt anything that smooth. (Its crazy buttery smooth)
You can spend 10k on a FreeMotion machine and it doesn’t beat this. Everyone is battling and taking different directions on their cable ratios and weight stacks, trying to solve the issue of smoothness and heaviness of the stack. If you go 2:1, it gets smoother but your weight stack gets split in half making heavy rows and pulldowns not possible. If you go 1:1 you lose a lot of smoothness and you cannot pull at a good pace without the stack jumping on you. No explosive rotations or sports specific movements on a 1:1.
What we have here is the best solution we have seen on any model in this range. You get 200lb stacks with the smoothest 2:1 you will find and then when you hit an exercise you run out of weight on, you connect the pulley above and you have a 1:1 200lb stack for heavy rows and pulldowns. This is the best of both worlds, and you don’t have to sacrifice.
Sidenote rant - if you geek on details like we do and you want to understand more. 2:1 doesn’t make it smooth, its many many factors in design and components that have to come together in symmetry to pull off what you feel in the hand and that’s why you can buy more expensive 2:1 ratios that don’t feel like this. It’s not just aluminum pulleys or 2:1, its your guide rods and how they meet the weight plate bushings, your selector pin rod, your cable diameter to the pulley match up and how you run the cable plus more, we could go on. It takes a top tier factory with years and years of experience to put something together that feels like this.
When you try it for yourself you will understand why we talk about the cable system like we do, it’s a beautiful thing that they pulled off here and you’ll know when you try it.
Most everything else about this machine doesn’t need much touching on. It’s a solid smith machine. Excellent squat rack with close hole spacing for micro bench and squat adjustments. Dip bars, multi grip pullup bar, quality safeties and j-cups.
Everything feels solid, as it should when its almost 900lbs. It checks all the boxes and deliveries a top tier cable machine which is where this machine shines past the rest.
