2. analog
  3. 185631-3976

What Are The Differences Between The Vandenhul Cartridge Families

It seems like VDH had an abrupt departure in his cartridge designs awhile back. There were the metal body ones like the Grasshopper and other types, and then all of a sudden the open architecture of the Stradivarius cartridges appeared. Seems like the specifications also indicate a fundamental shift in design philosophy also. Yet I believe there is one hold over, or at least the silver and gold versions of the Grasshopper stayed around longer than the other ones.

 

Does anyone know what changed, and what the corresponding differences in presentation might be? I was looking at 3 of the Frog series cartridges available here on Audiogon.

neonknight

Showing 1 response by portoalegre

portoalegre's avatar
portoalegre
22 posts
 

I've already had VdH MC-One, The Frog, The Frog Gold, and The Black Crimson (polycarbonate body). They all are fantastic cartridges, but the Crimson is much better, has a very dynamic and open sound in all frequencies, but a little bit aggressive in high frequencies with some recordings.

I've compared them with several other cartridges, and the closest were Lyra Kleos (also very open sound) and Hana Umami Red (a fantastic cartridge, a little softer than The Crimson).

I would like to ask the group if anyone has compared VdH Crimson with wooden body versus polycarbonate body. I've heard that thw wooden body would sound more organic and less analytical ...  

Thanks!

More to discover