Product Description
The van den Hul Colibri XGW Grand Cru Elite is the magnum opus of A.J. van den Hul’s 46+ years of phonograph cartridge research and development. The van den Hul Colibri Gran Cru Elite (a special Grand Vintage, you might say) features hand-wound gold wire coils and a solid boron cantilever while the outer shell, or cartridge body, is constructed from a specific wood type which is derived from an Italian musical instrument dating back several hundred years. This translates to a targeted set of resonance patterns within the structure leading to pleasing music reproduction. The Colibri Gran Cru incorporates Van den Hul’s renowned VDH-1S stylus type which the company has been using and perfecting since 1973.
van den Hul XGW Colibri Signature Stradivarius Moving Coil Cartridge: A New Contender for State-of-the-Art
03-22-2018 | By Myles B. Astor | Issue 96
What differentiates state-of-the-art cartridges from the rest of the pack? Simple. State-of-the-art cartridges (or for that matter any audio component) establish performance benchmarks for other cartridges to meet. Take for the sake of argument assessing a cartridge’s performance on a scale of one to ten using criteria such as dynamics, soundstaging, timbre, linearity, transient attack, resolution, texture, low level resolution, dimensionality, frequency extension, etc. A state-of-the-art cartridge should score sevens or eights across the board with one or two nines thrown in for good measure. (Yes, I’m a tough judge, but one lesson that HP taught the best reviewers—not unlike ice skating or gymnastic judges—is to leave yourself wiggle room!) Essentially no weak points and a couple of groundbreaking areas. The bulk of the scores for next tier of cartridges might be fives and sixes with an occasional seven or four. Translation. An even sounding cartridge that gives a very good taste of what the top cartridges do. Cartridges further down on the list may display very definable shortcomings in one or two areas and rack up scores of four and fives. These cartridges would fall into the category of great bangs for the buck.
Read Full Review
Tracking Force between 1.25 – 1.40 grams
Anti-skating Force between 0.0 – .6 grams
Effective Arm Mass recommended: 10 – 14 grams (Suspension optimization services available.)
Load Impedance: 50 ohms to 47K ohms
Optimal Loading: 50 ohms to 600 ohms
Internal Coil Impedance ~ 12ohms
Output Level 0.75mv. and custom lower output versions (ie. 0.35mv.) available upon special request.
