Got a 0.6 meter pair used for $85. Very smooth laid back sound. Very detailed. Transmits lots of information. 5 speakers ++

A great interconnect cable. Very smooth and detailed. Should be used to tame a bright sounding system.

Definately worth a listen! One of the best.
This cable is very neutral. It is great on CD players because it does something special to the upper treble which seems to eliminate the digital edge of bright CDs WITHOUT SOUNDING ROLLED OFF! Bass is solid, natural and deep. Timbre is outstanding - check out woodwinds and guitar. Not as dynamic as XLO but much more forgiving and very respectable dynamics.

Be careful with some preamps or tube equipment because it has no shield and can be unusable if it produces hum. If it does, just get THE SECOND.

I never thought that a good quality digital interconnect would make any difference. I thought the signal was digital and the cable only transported the 1 and 0's to the receiver. Well I was wrong. I recently added the Van Den Hull "The First" between my Philips DVD and Philips AC-3 Receiver and the result was huge. The concert DVD of the Bee Gees sounded more detailed. It even looked of new instruments were added and even the breathing of the brothers Gibb can now be heard. All these and more differences can be notised even though my speakers aren't HiFi speakers (bose 301 and 101). I would advise this digital ics to anyone with ears for good quality sound. I rate them 5 stars

extended but ultra smooth highs, liquid mids with weighty and deeper bass. A rhythmic cable.

system-dependent; in my opinion, the interconnects favour tube amplifiers more than solid states, as in the case of the latter equipment, the airyness is gone, compressed and dark sounding.

The interconnects are vdH The First Ultimate (a much improved version of vdH The First) and used in a tubed-based system, the sound is first-rate, ie. very fine and extended highs without any brightness nor sibilance, more palpable and liquid sounding mid-range and bass has got more weight and slam. Overall sound - great tonal balance, rhythmic, more focussed with more presence felt.

However, replacing my Audio Note 300B amplifier with an Audio Analogue Puccine SE amplifier, the sound now is less three-dimensional and airyness is gone. Move away from the sweet spot, the tonal balance is noticeably out with too much emphasis being placed in the low frequencies - akin to a forced-out type of sound. Such faults are gone and sound is more natural with a more neutral interconnects like Kimblekable Silver Streaks plugged into the Audio Analogue Puccini SE.

Conclusion? These vdH interconnects are certainly not neutral and are very system-dependent, audition them first in your own system before buying. In hi-fi setups, I am of the opinion that there are no bad equipment altogether and the trick is about system matching so as to attain our own 'desired' type of sound.

Current system comprises of Sony XA-5ES CD Player, Audio Note Kit 1 Amplifier (alternating with Audio Analogue Puccine SE integrated amplifier), MS-10i Pearl Loudspeakers and vdH CS-122 Hybrid Speaker Cables.

Similar Products Used:

Audio Note AN-C, vdH The Second, XLO Type 1, Kimberkable Silverstreak.

she is teaching u how to appriciate the charmness of the vocal

lack of brightness of the tremble

amazing tech, beautiful performance, immortal life.
successful marriage with the tube amp, at least i think.

Similar Products Used:

van den hul d122 hybrid

Transparency, midrange and bass

eh...may be a little too tranparent

JUst make the music come alive....sweeter vocal, and very good midrange.

Dynaudio 1.8II
Primare A30.1
Primare CD 30.2
VDH The wind II

Similar Products Used:

VDH The second, MIT 750

I recently bougth the Van den Hul The First as a analog interconnect for my sony 20ES Minidisc-player and Denon TU235 Tuner. The results are excellent. In particular the sound of my Minidisc-player can now almost match my Marantz CD-63KI CD-player. There is no digital harshness anymore, which is still a problem for Minidisc-players. My tuner also sounds very good, especially with voices and clasical as well as up tempo music. Only sometimes I think that the sound is a little bit shut in, but that can be a phisical problem, because The first is very different from other cables.

The only drawback is the fact that The First is not grounded. So when I turn on the volume knob completely of my Marantz PM 66KI amplifier, I can hear some noise. I contact my Van den Hul dealer, and they say that with some amplifiers the noise problem occurs. But the noise does not affect the sound quality, because it only is a problem at really high volume levels which damaged your ears.

I also use The First as a digital interconnect between my Cd-player and Minidisc, and the results are excellent. The First can be used as an digital interconnect cable, because it has an impedance of 75 Ohm, which is nessecary for the digital signal that is transmitted.

Naturalness, low-level detail, control, grainless "non-metallic" sound, great for bright set-ups

Real transparency, macro dynamics, it sounds a bit "dark" and laid-back

The Van Den Hul The First is very special, because it doesn't use metal as a conductor, but 12,000 carbon fibres! Advantages are obvious: no deterioration (corrosion) of the conductors, no problems bending the cable (which is always bad for a cable made out of metal, because of the crystalline structure of the cable), among other advantages. The problem is that carbon is a semi-conductor and that the cable has a high impedance as a result. But this is no bad thing for a digital cable, as it has to have an impedance of 75 ohms, which it is (about 100 Ohms/m actually).

I use this cable as a digital interconnect for all my digital connections. The reason is simple: you will hear 50% more naturalness and real low level detail, while perhaps giving up the ultimate transparency (though perhaps some metallic enhanced form of transparency) and dynamics and forwardness of metallic cables. But it does introduce subtleties that were obscured before.

I used this cable also as a analogue interconnect and wasn't very impressed. It's sound in analogue form is very system dependant.

Whatever the reason, try this cable as a digital interconnect and be amazed. It is so DIFFERENT, that it might just suit you. It did it for me!

Similar Products Used:

Audioquest Video Z and X, Chord Prodac, Chord Solid

The cable sounds fantastic
You also can use it as digital cable

Needs a good system

I think at this price it is one of the best cables you can buy.

Similar Products Used:

siltech st 38 g3
mogami little wonder