I Spent $5,000 On the Speediance 2S. Here's What Nobody Tells You.

The Delivery Experience Nobody Warns You About

I received the Speediance 2S yesterday. It's sitting in my living room right now next to the original Speediance because it's meant to go up in my office. I wanted to give you the meat of this review right away.

Two criteria mattered to me: how loud is this device, and does it feel significantly heavier?

Here's what happened when it arrived: delivered by pallet. The original Speediance came straight into my house on a dolly — much smaller package because it didn't include a bench. The 2S? Pallet delivery. It was dropped off at the other end of my property, and I had to figure out how to get it inside. That meant unboxing it outside and rolling it across my property. Not a dealbreaker, but definitely a shock at 7 AM.

The Noise Difference Is Massive

This is the first thing you need to understand: the 2S in standby mode is dead silent. I thought it wasn't actually on because that's not the experience with the original Speediance.

When you turn it on, there's a slight noise. But it's quieter than the air purifier in my office. It's about equivalent to a low-to-medium fan setting. When the fan is on medium, I can't hear the 2S at all.

The original Speediance? Different story. In standby mode, it's loud. During startup, it's loud. It's the power supply fan — sounds exactly like a late 90s era PC. I'm not exaggerating. I had a gaming PC back in the day with the same noise profile.

For my living room, the original is fine — there's always a TV blaring, kids running around. But for my office? It was unacceptable. That was the reason I couldn't replace the Tonal in my office with the original Speediance.

The Weight: 260 Feels Like 60 More

I max out the original Speediance on bench at 220 pounds. On Tonal, I never hit 200. The 2S goes to 260.

When I loaded 260 on the 2S for the first time, I expected it to feel only slightly heavier than 220. I was wrong. That 260 feels like an additional 60 pounds, not 40. It hit me like a truck.

Here's why: these digital cable machines don't feel the same as free lifting. There's no momentum to carry you through. On the original Speediance, I can do basically unlimited reps until my cardio fails — it doesn't feel heavy. On the 2S at 260, I was genuinely struggling. I could feel it in my quads during deadlifts in a way the original never gave me.

This device gives me room to grow. I'm 6'0" and I've been benching around 200-220 for years. With 260 available, I can actually progress on movements that were maxed out before. Deadlifts on this machine actually work my quads. On the original and Tonal, deadlifts were just cardio — I'd rather run outside.

The Math: Two Speediances Cost Less Than One Tonal

This is the part that blew my mind. The total cost of owning Tonal over 5 years — device plus membership — is more than buying both Speediance devices and having one in my office and one in my living room.

Tonal's total cost of ownership over the life of the device is roughly what you'd pay for two Speediances with both sitting in your house. That's insane math.

The Small Changes Add Up

The 2S has a ring clip that the original doesn't include. It makes clicking in much easier — you hit it with the back of your thumb instead of trying to finagle a ring on your finger while gripping a heavy bar.

The slow-descent mechanism when you hit the button? It has a spring in it so the weight doesn't drop on your head. On the original, I dropped the handle on my head the first time I used it because I didn't understand the mechanism. This new design prevents that.

The speaker system is different — that's the main addition on the 2 versus the 2S. But you can buy a Bluetooth speaker for $200 and save yourself $2,000.

Who Should Buy Which

If you need the extra resistance OR you need a quiet environment, the 2S is the answer. If neither matters to you — if it's going in a loud garage gym — the original is phenomenal and costs half as much.

The 2S goes in my office. It's quiet enough to do sets once an hour without disturbing work. The original stays downstairs in my living room where noise doesn't matter.

The 30-day money-back guarantee matters here. This thing bolts to your wall. You will have giant holes in your wall if you return it. But you don't have to decide upfront — you get 30 days to figure out if it's right for your space.

I couldn't be happier with this upgrade.