Van Den Hul The CRIMSON XGW STRADIVARIUS

Van Den Hul The CRIMSON XGW STRADIVARIUS

MY TAKE: The new van den Hul Crimson Stradivari cartridge is a masterwork! A wonderful sounding cartridge that offers the speed and detail retrieval you'd expect from a moving coil, but with a full-bodied midrange and richness that's beguiling. Very musical without being blatantly colored. Lovely! - Galen Carol

THE CRIMSON STRADIVARIUS XGW is Koa Wood Body with special Stradivarius Formula Lacquer. XGW = exclusive X coil configuration, 24 karat Gold wire, Koa Wood body with unique Lacquer. Applying the special lacquer is a tedious and time-consuming task involving multiple steps and requiring an extended period of curing:
 

• 4 weeks for the first layer
• 4 weeks for second layer
• 4 weeks for the third layer
• This is followed by an additional three months of air curing and hardening process
   

The Gold coil wires offer a number of advantages over copper. "I use a 20 to 25-micron soft gold-wire for winding and find it better for very low level conducting. This Gold wire is drawn at extremely slow speed. This maintains much better the integrity of the conductor; around 5 cm/second, there's no mechanical drawing variations modulations and dramatically improved analog sound. Higher drawing speed adds extra crystal boundaries. Lower speed decreases the number of crystal boundaries and layers and gives, therefore, a purer sound. The quality of the wire makes or breaks the final result after all other work on components and construction is done well.

"Soft metals have a high number of free electrons. This combined with very high purity, produces the best sound specific on very low signal levels like concert hall acoustics." - A.J. van den Hul

The CRIMSON is a top-performing custom hand-built moving coil phono cartridge. Specific characteristics for this great cartridge are a relatively high (0.8mV) output, gold coils, a Samarium-Cobalt magnet, extended channel separation, and superb tracking ability. The CRIMSON is one of the cartridges with the best value for money available. It is completely hand-built by the Master himself and comes with a 200-hour service check-up, free of charge (for the original owner).

REVIEWS:
 

The Absolute Sound: Phono Cartridge of the Year 2017 - "With a body handmade of Hawaiian koa wood triple-coated with a special Stradivarius-type lacquer, the Crimson uses 24-karat gold coils and a cantilever that is solid boron with a VDH Type 1s (2x85-micron) stylus. Our reviewer Andre Jennings found the Crimson XGW Stradivarius to be impartial across most of the frequency spectrum (including the presence range), with large macro-dynamics from the power region on down. Quite forceful on transients but less delicately detailed than its twice-as-expensive Colibri XGW Signature Stradivarius cousin, the Crimson counters by surpassing the Colibri in sheer bottom-octave drive with propulsive music. While not carrying a five-figure price tag, the Crimson isn’t embarrassed in the company of competition at two (or three) times its asking price in soundstaging, energy, dynamic pacing, and drive—making it a relative bargain in the ultra-high-end cartridge sweepstakes, and one of TAS’ most distinguished 2017 Product of the Year Award winners."

HiFi News: “All the while this cartridge’s innate speed and dynamics are brought to bear on the recording and the result is startling. Instrumental timbre is sublime; strings drip with harmonics yet never screech; brass rasps but doesn’t grate; cellos bow darkly and menacingly. The Crimson seems able to peel off layer after layer of ‘wrapping’ and get you to the music, yet it all sounds so easy and organic.

“One of the best MCs I’ve heard, van den Hul’s the Crimson offers a uniquely beguiling combination of speed and sweetness. It is a dazzling performer no matter what music you play, but it isn’t a cartridge for ‘deconstructing’ records, rather it celebrates them and makes you want more.” Hi-Fi News
 

Soundstage Ultra: "The van den Hul Crimson Stradivarius sounds more neutral, even, balanced, and real than any other cartridge I have heard. By definition, that makes it, for me, of reference caliber, and a perfect addition to a reviewer’s toolbox or a music lover’s analog source. Fed well-recorded LPs, it will deliver equal portions -- large portions -- of truth and beauty." - Tom Mathew
 

SPECIFICATIONS:

• Tracking Force   1.35 to 1.5 grams
• Anti Skate 0.4- 0.6 grams
• Arm Mass 10- 16 grams
• Load imp 25- 47k ohms
• Opt Load imp 25- 200 ohms
• Output .8 mV
• Stylus shape VDH 1S
• Stylus radii 2 x 85 Micron
• Static compliance 35 Micron/mN
• Tracking ability 70 - 80 Micron
• Channel unbalance < 0.3 dB
• Channel separation > 36 / > 30 dB
• Stylus tip mass 0.32 mg
• Weight 8.5 g
• Load capacitance Non-critical
• Load impedance 25 Ohm - 200 Ohm
• Moving coil resistance - 13.0 Ohm