This week, Piet and I visited the Van den Hul company in Vaassen, in the east of the Netherlands. Van den Hul is worldwide renowned for its audiophile interconnects and phono cartridges.
Founder Aalt Jouk van den Hul is the eminence grise of the company and an undisputed authority in the world of high-end audio.
Our aim was to meet the man in person, have a talk about cables*, and to compare Wheel 3 to the highest of high end audio equipment. Selfmade men like Mr. Van den Hul tend to have strong opinions about a lot of things, just like us. We had a very lively and interesting discussion, and while we didn’t always align, the respect was mutual and the conversation brought new insights.
At the age of 88, Van Den Hul still builds the famous Colibri phono cartridges himself. We set up Wheel 3 in Van den Hul’s exuberant listening room and played records on both Wheel 3 and a Colibri equipped turntable.
The monster horn loudspeakers built by Blumenhofer acoustics created a sound stage and detail you very seldom experience.
We are confident about Wheel 3, but to see Mr. Van den Hul genuinely impressed by Wheel 3’s audio quality was worth the visit alone.
He also was complimentary about Wheel 3’s design and concept, and during the farewell he confided in me; ‘Je hebt een klapper’.
*2 meter Van den Hul Flexicon B4 interconnect
We’ve been offering custom Van den Hul interconnects since our first Wheel. For Wheel 3, Van den Hul builds the Flexicon B4 interconnects. Recently, we changed the length to 2 meter. The 3,5 mm golden mini-jack guarantees a rock solid electrical contact with Wheel 3’s socket, and the twisted cables transport a clean signal to the golden rca connectors on the other end. It’s the best way to connect Wheel 3 to an amplifier or active loudspeakers.