Miniot Wheel 3: The Dutch Turntable That Plays Records from Below —Because Being on Top Is So Last Century

How many ways can you spin a record before it starts feeling like you’re just chasing your tail? Turntable designers have been at it for decades—ditching traditional tonearms, flipping records sideways, and building contraptions that belong more in a sci-fi movie than a hi-fi rack. Some of it’s actually worked. Most of it’s just been a joke. The Miniot Wheel 3? Well, it might just have a shot at pulling it off. But let’s be clear, they’re hardly the pioneers in this department.

Goldmund’s linear-tracking marvels like the Reference and Studio turntables offered top-tier performance—if you had the budget of a hedge fund manager and the patience to tweak endlessly. They were beautiful, massive, and finicky. Basically, the audio equivalent of a high-maintenance partner.

The Waiting for Ideas PP-1 (which incorporates Miniot technology) looked like something a moody industrial designer cooked up after a long weekend in Lyons. Minimalist, machined from a single block of aluminium, and vaguely Bauhaus. A conversation piece, if not a daily driver.

What makes the Waiting for Ideas PP-1 (yes, “Plug and Play 1”) stand out is its blatant disregard for the standard tonearm. No tonearm to fiddle with, no adjustments to make—just flip the vinyl upside down, hit Play, and let the 0.4 x 0.7 mil elliptical diamond stylus take care of business.

The folks at Waiting for Ideas aren’t big on sharing every detail, like whether it uses an MM or MC cartridge (probably a secret they’re saving for a French wine pairing), but the stylus is flipped upside down to do the hard work of reading those grooves. It’s minimalist to the point of being almost reckless, but hey, sometimes simple is better, right?

Pro-Ject flirted with the same idea with their VT-E and VT-E-BT as well as Fuse Audio, and proved you can play vinyl upright without launching your records across the room. So, credit where it’s due.

And now the Dutch are back at it with the Miniot Wheel 3. This one plays your records from below—because of course it does—and hides all the tech underneath like it’s too good to show off. It’ll sit on your credenza or hang on your wall like some audiophile art installation, quietly judging your IKEA media unit. Bold? Definitely. Useful? We’ll see. But one thing’s for sure: leave it to the Dutch to make playing a record feel like operating a spacecraft.

In 2022, Miniot set out to build the ultimate Wheel turntable. The result is Wheel 3 – the culmination of that vision. More than just the finest Wheel ever made, it’s the definitive record player.

Features

Wheel 3 is radical. It pushes the Wheel concept to its limits — and beyond. Here are some key design features:

• Revolutionary Optical Pickup System: Wheel 3 uses a diamond stylus without magnets or coils. Vibrations from the stylus are optically converted into an analog audio signal, along with a position signal. Its inverted design places the sensor close to the stylus tip, allowing for accurate tracking.
• Built-in Preamp: The Wheel 3 incorporates and high-end preamplifier engineered to complement the optical stylus. The supports additional sonic clarity.
• Direct Drive Motor: The Wheel 3 incorporates an axial flux direct-drive motor that was designed and built in-house. Motor speed is optically controlled.
• Rigid Linear Tonearm: The linear tonearm on the Wheel 3 has been redesigned with a focus on precision and quiet operation. It moves vertically from bottom to top, contributing to the symmetrical layout and helping to reduce dust exposure.
• Flexible Installation: According to Miniot, the Wheel 3 can be used upright on its stand, on a flat surface, or hung on the wall. The new mechanism works at any angle, even upside down.

Wheel 3 Direct Drive: Engineering Precision Where It Counts

Wheel 3’s direct drive system isn’t just a spec sheet exercise—it’s the heart of the machine. Early prototypes ran with a belt drive, the classic choice for vibration damping. But Wheel’s unconventional layout made that route a control nightmare. Instead of compromising, the designers made the bold call to delay the product and engineer their own ultra-flat direct drive motor from scratch.

The result? A low-profile rotor embedded with 24 high-strength N52 neodymium magnets, perfectly tailored to Wheel 3’s sleek, sideways architecture. The motor sits just millimeters from the tonearm—an issue for traditional cartridges, but not for Wheel 3’s optical stylus, which shrugs off magnetic interference like a disinterested cat.

Controlling this motor is where the real magic happens. Borrowing lessons from four years of trial and error on Wheel 2, the team developed a next-gen motion control system that’s part sensor suite, part AI. It doesn’t just react to imperfections like warps or off-center pressings—it predicts them, learning each record’s quirks in a single 360° revolution. This “look-ahead” tech ensures flawless groove tracking and pitch-perfect playback from the first note.

Direct drive is often called the ideal turntable drive system. But putting one on its side, with no flywheel and no room to hide flaws, is a different beast entirely. Lesser motors introduce cogging, ripple, and magnetic irregularities—subtle but fatal to timing and musicality. Wheel 3 doesn’t dodge that challenge; it crushes it, using its precision control system to deliver rock-solid performance with zero fudge factor.

The Bottom Line

The Miniot Wheel 3 is a sleek piece of industrial design wrapped around some genuinely clever tech—no coils, no magnets, just a diamond stylus feeding an optical system that looks like it belongs in a lab, not a living room. At €2,900, it’s not cheap, and you could absolutely buy a superb turntable and cartridge combo for the same money that might even sound better. But it won’t flip itself vertically, spark curiosity, or become the center of conversation every time someone walks into the room. The Wheel 3 isn’t just about listening to records—it’s about making a statement while you do.

Pricing & Availability

The Miniot Wheel 3 is expected to start shipping by the end of June 2025, but can pre-ordered now for $2,624.

A Special Edition is also forthcoming (no date has been announced) that will feature solid wooden back, as shown below.

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