מפרט מלא
www.hifichoice.co.uk
Date Printed: 23 May 2005
Van den Hul 'The Snowline'

On closer listening, deep bass is not half bad - greater extension can be found, though not easily or cheaply

hink of this cable as a tweaky version of 79-strand - it has similar parameters in terms of conductor cross-section and geometry. But there are 98 strands, of silver-plated copper, and the insulation is 'Hulliflex' rather than PVC, giving slightly lower capacitance and lower dielectric loss than cheap figure-8 cables, while resistance is fractionally higher. It's flexible and easy to terminate: for review it came with standard 'O-Z' banana plugs.

Sound quality
The first impression of this cable was that it has an unusual tonal balance, with slight prominence given to the upper bass and low midrange. On closer listening, deep bass is not half bad - greater extension can be found, though not easily or cheaply. And the warmth imparted by what is technically an imbalance is certainly not unpleasant in most circumstances, the only exception I found being a few close-miked male vocal recordings which became just a bit too chesty for comfort.

There's a good degree of midrange detail and a commendably natural treble which never once deteriorated to harshness. Stereo imaging is quite good though not class-leading, with relatively little depth information, and dynamics sometimes seem a little squashed, making for some hardness at climaxes. The decay of sounds in an ambient setting is fairly well preserved, though it is perhaps a little too rapid. Meanwhile the good bass extension makes low-lying melody lines easy to follow and maintains clear pitching on low plucked notes and tuned percussion.

It's hard to summarise the performance of this cable succinctly. It's civilised, like all vdH products, but it seems to have sacrificed something in achieving that. At its price there are a few other interesting cables (from Ixos and QED, for instance) which would be worth comparing, if possible in your own system. But it has its own virtues which seem to justify a Recommendation