VAN DEN HUL The Orchid

MJ17.02.2009

Interconnects

The thinnest VDH brought unbelievable sound liquidity into my system. The sound was not dripping from my speakers, it was pouring out with honey-like viscosity. At the same time, it is a very musical cable that does not know what listening fatigue means.

Function and form

95%

Ease of use

36%

Sound

85%

Appearance

The highest purity carbon core that has a homogenic crystal structure has been patented by Van den Hull under the LSC acronym. Each carbon fiber in the core is 6 micrometers thick and carries its own insulation. The impedance of such a conductor should be independent on the inut signal which - according to Van den Hul - improves articulation of low frequencies.

The Orchid is a hybrid cable of a triaxial design, that combines the carbon with copper and silver. It is also a very thin cable that looks like a thick guitar string, not far from what Crystal Cable offers.

Bass management

Weight

Slam

Articulation

The central copper conductor of the The Orchid is silver-plated and wrapped in a 48-wire copper-silver braid with vaporized LSC carbon layer. The last layer is a HF shielding, again of the hybrid silver on copper design. The The Orchid also combines three different dielectrics: PFA in the core, PTFE (Teflon) in the middle layer and Hulliflex, special VDH's patented polymer in the outer jacket. For one string it is a lot of engineering.

Clarity & delicacy

Detail

Air

Transparency

It is not surprising that the red The Orchid is great for manipulation. It is less pliable than a Crystal Cable, however - it is not possible to tie a knot on it. It was great sounding out of the box and, honestly speaking, I did not hear a lot of improvement after few dozens of hours of burn-in.

Tonal accuracy

Timbre

Dynamics

Temporal resolution

The The Orchid is not a sparkling cable, nor it is tonally dark. It is not definitely analytic sounding, nor it is forgiving. It is not glowingly warm, nor it is sterile. Tonally it is a very balanced cable that has no obvious strengths, nor it has obvious weaknesses. Van den Hul likes to use the word 'linear' and linear this cable is - as if everything was proportional in a linear fashion in its sound.

Spatial resolution

Holography

Soundstage width

Soundstage depth

Though the VDH The Orchid is not a colored cable it has a touch of analogue warmth. Thus it sounds human-like and fits well with well-recorded vocals, like the one of Rebecca Pidgeon. Her voice was velvety rich and liquid, with no haze whatsoever, neither it suffered from any imbalance, yet texturally it was less complex than I was used to hear it with some other cables. The imaging was very good, with wide and open soundstage and good focus, though I could hear little less of the studio's ambience. Mr. Van den Hul knows what his devotees like and he is ready to satisfy them.

Spatially I sensed a bit compression in the soundstage depth. The sonic picture never travelled too much in the room and the image was also not as deep as it should have been. As a result, the symphonic orchestra missed three-dimensionality and became more compact. If you are an imaging freak, check before you pay.

Price as reviewed:10 000,- Kč

Recommended resellers

High-End Audio Studio, Belgická 4, Praha, tel. +420 224 256 844

Manufacturer's website: http://www.vandenhul.com

Associated components

Sources: Meridian G08, Accuphase DP-78
Amplifiers: Meridian G02, Mark Levinson No. 432, Acuphase A-60, Pathos Logos
Interconnects and speaker cables: Krautwire Fractal, Homegrown Audio DNA, Cardas Golden Presence and Cross
Loudspeakers: Focal JMlab Diablo Utopia, Revel M22, Dynaudio Confidence C1, Audio Physic Virgo V

Gallery

89%

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