Bass, midrange, soundstage, detail.

If you want your music exciting it may sound a bit soft.

I wanted to upgrade my cables and after a lot of reading of hi-fi magazines I ended up choosing between VDH CS-122 and QED Silver Anniversary. The hi-fi shop gave me both cables for extended listening in order to choose. The winner was VDH CS-122 with a cost of 12 EURO/m unterminated. This cable made a significant improvement to the sound of my system. Bass is very deep, strong and always controlled, the midrange and vocals are EXTREMELY NATURAL sounding and detailed, the soundstage is deep and wide with a lot of "air" and space between instruments and voices, which sound clear and full bodied, while the high frequencies are also clear, extended ,very very sweet and polite. Compared with the QED cable ( which sounded very good indeed ),the VDH was better in every aspect except the high frequencies which are a bit stronger on the QED cable. Now with this cable on my system I realized that I can hear music more hours than before and in higher volume without being tired. As a matter of fact I rediscovered my entire cd collection. The VDH cable needs a lot of burning in ( at least 50 hours )and is mostly suitable for soft rock, pop, vocals, jazz etc. If you prefer something different than this ( hard rock or generally something wild ) the sound may seem a bit soft.

Similar Products Used:

Oelbach 1008, QED Silver Anniversary

very good cable for the money.

almost nothing.

in this price range I think this is the best one, good highs and midrange bass is a bit higher then normal but if you want every thing great that might cost you alot more.

Similar Products Used:

kimber, monster,audioquest

Balance, Bass, Soundstage, Sound depth.

If you system is not top notch, prepare to upgrade.

The price per meter is 12 EUR. I bought these cable to go with my JMLab cobalt 816 speakers. They replaced the 2.5mm copper brandless cables I was using. With the JMLabs speakers leaning towards brightness these speaker cables are ideal. The balance in the sound is very, very good. The bass really kicks but balance is always there. No dips in any frequency. They do tend to soften the highs a bit, but with the JMLabs that is no problem at all. The clarity is great and the soundstage really improved a lot compared to the brandless 2.5mm copper cables. Also the listening experience got a lot lesh tiresome. The harshnesh was almost completely gone after plugin in these cables. I can really here the limits of my cdplayer/amp combo now (darn).

Similar Products Used:

Supra ply 3.4, monster cable, brandless 2.5mm, ixos gamma series.

great midrange ability

treble and bass are not tight as they shoudl be; lack of treble extension

I got these cables for free!!!. ..before you go cursing me, i purchased a 500 pound musical fidelity amplifier and i think he had a bit of a profit margin, hence he threw in 6 meters of the cs122. Now to the review... The cs-122''s are a very flexible, thickish speaker cable. I had no problems stripping wire and connecting them to my banana plugs(unlike the tara labs prism omni 2+2). Once setup i was anxious to hear the what-hifi cable of the year (back then...). Instantly there was greater treble extension compared to my tara labs, bass was also quite weighty. What impressed me the most is its midrange ability. Very convincing and natural. It sounded good...till one fine day....One of the retailers was informing me that with my current system i should change my speaker cable(he beleived Van Den Hul didnt do bass as tight as it should...). I was quite against it, especially when it sounded quite good(to me anyway...). My system comprises of: Musical fidelity(MF) x-p100 + xas-100 MF E624 Van del Hun d 102 Mk3(pre to power and cdplayer to pre) interconnects Van den hul cs122 Dynaudio contour 1.8Mk2 Upon testing his given speaker QED silver anniversary i must admit the treble is truer and the bass allot more sharper. Unfortunately the QED doesn''t have the mid-range ability of the cs122, but it more than makes up for in its other qualities. CS122 are NOT a bad speaker. They lack the treble and Bass definition of other cables but provide GREAT midrange capability. Audition them..again don''t always go by what the hifi magazines tell you..ultimately its your ear that is the judge...

Similar Products Used:

tara labs omni 2+2, QED silver anniversary, Belden, Tara labs prism 500.

When I biwired my P6´s with this cable, I found bass and separation, which just wasn´t there before. Perhaps too soft in higher frequencies, but I think that´s OK if you have metal tweeters like my speakers. Got it for just £8 per metre, a bargain in my eyes.

Used with:
Marantz PM-16
Marantz CD-63mkII KIS
AudioTruth Lapis

detail, balance sound

slightly less mid

Clean, detail, transparent and balanced sound. need run-in for at least one month (100hours also). The slightly less mid-range might be due to not enough run-in time but clearly it is a very high C/P cable.

Sonic Frontier Line3
Bryston 4BST
B&W 803S2

Similar Products Used:

AQ 8TC

good clearety and balanced cable

?

after i switch my monster cable to that one i feel rghit away the diferent.
good balance and very clear suond become from my m.b.quart speaker. it like to replace your amp or cd player.
and for this price its good dell

none

Very boomy sound, lacks detail

When I buyed new B&W CDM 7 SE speakers, I thought that it would be wise to get good cables. The dealer reccommended van den hull.
At home my new speakers disappointed me at first, because they gave a boomy sound, with so much bass that it overruled all other frequencies. Furtheron the bass was not very precise, when I tested them with the Portishead CD.

I tried my old cables (brandless) and the problem was over.
Maybe because I have a rather smaal room that the bas couldn't get away, but the cables were very disappointing to me.

INCREDIBLE dynamics, strong treble and mid-range

weak in very low bass

I purchased CS122 to replace my temporary VDH Skyline Hybrid (a very good cable for $2/ft Cnd) after reading that it had won "best cable 10-20 pounds/meter" in WHAT HI-FI? for the third consecutive year. I was very impressed from the moment they were put in. However, I later read a review in HI-FI CHOICE which criticized the cables as being weak in low bass and decaying delicate sounds such as a triangle too rapidly. A lot of these criticisms were valid but ONLY DURING THE BURN-IN PERIOD!!. After 24 hours of play, these cables made such a significant difference that I would strongly recommend these cables for anyone with a mid-priced system. However, with very low frequencies, the bass is a little bit muted. Since my speakers do not go down that low (48 Hz), only a couple CD's in my collection are a problem.
In sum, if you are looking for a reasonably priced ($7/ft Cnd) speaker cable to liven up your system (given that your speakers do not go below 40 Hz), these cables definitely deserve an audition.

System:
Arcam Alpha 7se CDP
Arcam Alpha 7r Int Amp
Arcam Alpha 8p Pwr Amp
B&W DM 603 S2 speakers
XLO Ultra 1 interconnects
Van Den Hul CS122 hybrid speaker cables

Similar Products Used:

none others auditioned

Excellent detail, clarity, deep bass.

to much bass for B&W.

This cable has earnt its way through the years.
HiFi News rates this cable as Best Buy in 1998, 1999 and 2000, among a lot of competition.
What's there to say except try them and hear it for yourself.