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Van Den Hul Crimson Stradivarius Moving Coil Cartridge Wilson Benesch Van Den Hul Crimson Stradivarius Moving Coil Cartridge Posted On 18.02.2021
Last Update On 18.05.2021 Wilson Benesch Van Den Hul Crimson Stradivarius Moving Coil Cartridge
Wilson Benesch Van Den Hul Crimson Stradivarius Moving Coil Cartridge Wilson Benesch Van Den Hul Crimson Stradivarius Moving Coil Cartridge Wilson Benesch Van Den Hul Crimson Stradivarius Moving Coil Cartridge Wilson Benesch Van Den Hul Crimson Stradivarius Moving Coil Cartridge Wilson Benesch Van Den Hul Crimson Stradivarius Moving Coil Cartridge Wilson Benesch Van Den Hul Crimson Stradivarius Moving Coil Cartridge
Description Original Description is in English, other language texts are translations and can contain errors. EnglishDeutschTurkish

UPC:

Van Den Hul Crimson Stradivarius

Condition:

Used

Weight:

0.50 KGS

Minimum Purchase:

1 unit

Maximum Purchase:

1 unit

Shipping:

Calculated at Checkout


150 hours use, then pranged tip, now retipped and 0hours since so as new cartridge superb

Here is an indendent Paul Rigby review

The chassis is made from Koa wood, coated with a special ‘Stradivarius formula’ lacquer. Three coats are added which then takes two months to properly harden. So that’s six months work before the actual cartridge is even built!

“The specific advantage,” explained van den Hul, “is that the harder outer coating destroys the standing waves inside the softer body.” 

Specific details? The Crimson Strad looks at a tracking force between 1.35g and 1.5g with minor anti-skate of 0.4-0.6g and an arm mass between 10-16g with a 50 hour running in time.

I asked Aalt Jouk van den Hul about those low tracking/anti-skate figures, “It is a matter of design quality to save the finest groove modulation, that the tracking force is just 1.5g,” he said “And with a low tracking force, also the anti-skating force setting is low. I prefer to move in the direction of just 1.0g tracking force instead of the more common 2.0g. Matter of design technology.” Also, he added, “When these adjustment figures are adjusted to higher levels, the spacious replay quality will drop. Also fine detail is missing.”

In addition to the screw holes on the sides of the chassis, to fit the cartridge to the headshell of your typical tonearm, there is a rear-mounted hole, centrally drilled too, at the rear of the chassis, “The rear hole is made for Linn tone-arm owners,” said van den Hul, “with the special configuration to allow Ittok owners the chance to use other cartridges than just those selected by Linn themselves.”

 So how much does the cartridge hurt then? I played Camel’s Moondmadness to get a first impression of the Crimson Strad. How to encapsulate it? Well, for most cartridges, it’s a bit like standing at the doorway of a room and saying to yourself, “Hey this sounds good. I like this.” The Crimson Strad sounds like you’ve then entered into the room and lots more information is suddenly hitting your ears. 

So what’s the big selling point of this cartridge? Why should you yearn for one? Big bass? Shimmering cymbals? Tonal accuracy on the acoustic guitar? Well no.  Actually, yes but the headlines are not what this cart is all about. 

The reason you want this cartridge has nothing to do with major selling points. Its all about the little things. And boy, there’s so many of them. The list is a long one, let me tell you.

What really got me with the Crimson Strad were ‘moments’. Lots and lots of ‘moments’. These appeared especially during very familiar pieces of music where the Strad initiated changes, highlighted differences or exposed something new. This effect was not a shouty, look-at-me, thing. It was a very easy, almost matter of fact series of events. Yet, the effect was almost stronger because of that. It was almost like being ambushed by quality. 

So a familiar track would start and you’d think, “Well, ok, right. Not bad.” And then, almost like it was wheeled silently into view there would be, “Whoa, hang on where did that come from?” As a familiar instrument suddenly did something different. Sounding more mature, more detailed, tonally more exciting. Then back we’d go again into the pleasantly familiar. And then, here we go again, another quite amazing nugget would pass by, “It never sounded like that before, I never realised it was doing all of that – some yes – but not all of that.” And so on. 

To give you one minor specific example? During a verse sequence, the lead singer was doing his thing and the drummer was gently tapping away and then he hit a cymbal, with no great force, but the reverb held and carried. For a long time. It stuck there shimmering. It had never done that before. As it was about to fade and go, the drummer tapped it again. Back came the shimmer like a sonic ghost. And this happened four or five times. In the past, if I had even noticed it at all, when the cymbal was hit, it gave a nice brassy response but it never ‘held’ in this way. 

This was not a major part of the song, it wasn’t even a stand-out event. It lay at the base of the soundstage. Yet it was quite amazing to hear and it epitomised what the Crimson Strad could do. This sort of thing kept on happening all over the song. This building on ‘moments’ became quite over-whelming after a while. I began to sit further on the edge of my seat, waiting for the next one. 

I say that because, when you initially hear the Crimson Snever understood just how tightly strung a guitar is until I heard Andy Latimer on Chord Change actually pushing the strings of his electric guitar down during his solo. Sounds totally bizarre to me (and probably you) but I could hear string resistance. I think that’s the first time in my journalist career that I’ve ever noted that one before! I’ve also never heard a piano – and one that was a mere secondary rhythm instrument too – sound so focused, crisp and focused as the Strad allowed it to be. The piano on the track, Lunar Sea, was one of many busy events across the broad soundstage, yet the ear not only easily isolated the sound but was also entranced by the natural and tonal brilliance of the thing.  

I then turned to People, sung by Earl Coleman with Billy Taylor’s orchestra on the original Love Songs album from Atlantic (1968). In the past, I’ve experienced an effect where some instruments sounded like they were Velcroed to each other in a rather crowded and bustled manner. The Strad pulled them apart, allowing the ear to hear each effect. As such I could now hear new instruments within the busy orchestra. More than that was the ‘ease’. That is, how much detail was on offer without any apparent effort. No frequency emphasis here. No tricks. No sonic cheating. The Strad offered a sort of Buxton Spring Water effect on sound. Just natural minerals and nothing added. trad, you might be slightly confused and wonder where the cash has been spent. But just listen. 

 The tonally accurate cymbals, the crisper percussive effects, the textured vocals…none of this detail was at all boastful. None of it waved at me and demanded to be noticed. If I had had other things on my mind and didn’t bother to actually listen then I might have wondered why this cartridge was worth £4k. That is, unlike a cheap AV surround system, that hits you over the head with over-emphasised rumbling bass and explosive plastic mids, the Crimson Strad was so natural in its realism to be positively unassuming. The more I listened, in effect, the more I heard. Basically, if you want to hear more, then this cartridge is here for you. But it won’t bother you until then. Yet, the further I was then dragged into the music, the more I enjoyed myself. The fact became a sort of drug because the ear then wanted more and more.

CONCLUSION

I can safely say that VDH has fully exploited its natural talents and build budget here to such an extent that I can easily exclaim this cartridge to offer value for money. I know, sounds odd but you really have to live with one for a bit to know what I’m babbling on about here. Especially compared to some products I’ve heard. With the Crimson Strad, you never feel, to paraphrase Johnny Rotten, that you’re ‘being cheated’. Instead, you sit and listen and, as the time drifts by, you learn more and more about your music collection. There is so many of those ‘moments’ I mentioned above going on, in fact, that each LP really needs half a dozen plays to pick everything up. 

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