General/Powermatic Cutterhead differences?

[Jim Leslie]

I've been looking into a jointer upgrade and so far it has come down to a 6" with the helical heads. There seems to be quite a head difference between General and Powermatic: It looks like the PM has a Byrd style head (4 sided cutter) and General has a 2 sided head (Magnum). I prefer the 4 sided cutters but there must be more to it than that. Is there an advantage of one over the other I'm missing? Some archive search on the 54HH talks about other issues with that machine - one of the reasons I started leaning in the General direction. Price between the 2 is not a consideration since they are close there. It's the cutterhead question.

[Paul Klein]

I've been looking into a jointer upgrade and so far it has come down to a 6" with the helical heads. There seems to be quite a head difference between General and Powermatic: It looks like the PM has a Byrd style head (4 sided cutter) and General has a 2 sided head (Magnum). I prefer the 4 sided cutters but there must be more to it than that. Is there an advantage of one over the other I'm missing? Some archive search on the 54HH talks about other issues with that machine - one of the reasons I started leaning in the General direction. Price between the 2 is not a consideration since they are close there. It's the cutterhead question.

did you ever choose one over the other? I am in the same situation and would like advice...