Van Den Hul The Orchid Interconnects and The Inspiration Speaker Cables

VITAL STATS

	The Orchid	Inspiration
Cable Type	Interconnect	Speaker Cable
Length	0.8m	2.0m
Directional	Yes	Yes
Conductors	Silver plated OFC	Hybrid linear carbon, silver plated OFC
Resistance	0,0337 Ω/m (screen), 0,381 Ω/m (conductor)	4 x 2.8 Ω/100 m
Capacitance	100 pF/m	N/S
Insulation	Hulliflex jacket	Hulliflex 4
Dimensions	2.9mm diameter core	4 x 1.97 mm² cores

 

PRICE The Orchid 0.8m pair – R5,995.00, The Inspiration Speaker cables, R3,390/m plus custom terminations to your requirements estimated at between R2,500 and R3,500 per side.

SUPPLIED BY   HBD Audio Revelations / 079 222 2100 (Dayne)

WEBSITE www.vandenhul.com

Let me be honest here. This is the toughest assignment on the planet, namely reviewing hi-fi cabling. It is a challenge for heavy weights and one that I never really relish undertaking if the unvarnished truth be told. But when the cables are of quality I’ll give it a go…!

I think every one who has had a hi-fi has heard of van den Hul. Based in the Netherlands and started in 1980 by Mr AJ van den Hul the company is now deservedly world famous for cabling that delivers on the promise to give you more engagement with your music. You don’t get to these kind of lofty heights in the hi-fi industry if you’re not at the top of your game, and being there for over 45 years doesn’t come easy as many have discovered.

As I alluded to however, there is quite possibly no topic more polarising in hi-fi than the topic of cabling. It is a minefield in which everyone will have an opinion, or if they don’t yet, soon will. I am an engineer by training but even better than that I am a born skeptic with a jaded cynicism carefully cultivated and nurtured over many years. And yet, even to this day I cannot pretend to be any the wiser about cabling. I have heard all the old stories, quite a few of the newer ones and I am absolutely confident of hearing stories yet to be told when it comes to the dark arts of cabling hi-fi.

Why is this the case? Is it because the physics involved in cables becomes a part of the equation and when you can measure a thing, you can manage it, right?

As soon as someone is able to measure subjectivity however, please, do let me know.

Hi-fi has advanced of recent times to such an extent that the subtle differences that cables are able to make to systems are all the more apparent. Put another way the more detail, the more resolution and the more accuracy that new technology is able to deliver to our music means that there is more room for subtlety, nuance and inference.

The absolute degree to which streaming is able to render a performance, from the same recording rendered across CD vs. what is possible today is substantial. The worst of streaming today, Apple, is still better than the best of CD from yesterday. Actually scratch that. Apple AirPlay is pretty atrocious last time I listened to it (which is my opinion before I get sued out of existence and cancelled). But you get the gist. My stunner of a CD player, my old battle ship Sony XA50ES, which in its day kicked ass and took names, is hopelessly outclassed by my Node. It’s not even close.

But I still love it. What can I say? It’s the romance of digital jitter. Loading CDs physically from a collection on the shelf. Skipping tracks with a hand held remote. The joy of scratched surfaces causing annoying repeat…

I mention the advances because the role of cables becomes more important. As the improvements in sonic performance ramp up and become more detailed, the influence of cabling should become more correspondingly more apparent.

Describing the physical products as they are then. The Orchid Interconnect is an OFC silver core that is twin shielded, terminated in RCAs in this case. The cables construction is such that the core is virtually unbreakable, constructed as it is from “the purest and most carefully processed dense Silver coated Matched Crystal Oxygen Free Copper conductors complete with a rugged red coloured Hulliflex ® jacket”. Shielding is sophisticated and comprises as part of the triaxial construction process that embraces a dense braided 80-strand shield together with a similar underlying 48-strand second shield/signal conductor, and of course the afore-mentioned all important signal core. It feels amazingly strong even given its modest dimensions as per specs above.

The Inspiration Speaker cable as the co-partner in this exercise also features a heavily braided shielding that surrounds the 4 core inner cable laid out in what Van Den Hul describe as a “four star-quad-configured signal lines that surround the central ground lead”. Said lead should be grounded at the amplifier side and be left disconnected at the loudspeaker end whilst the 4 cores allows for flexibility for bi amping or bi wiring as you prefer.

I benched these two in my system against standard patch cables and thin twin core speaker cable that comes off a roll at Game. The cables are demo units and are well run in, meaning I didn’t have to fuss too much over them. But I had to run myself in and so over the last few weeks that’s what I have been doing. I ran the first two together for about a week and then added the Orchid and a week later added the Inspirations for about a week after that. 

If you’re expecting a sledgehammer in transformation I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed. This isn’t what happens. It’s a reverse process in reality, like many things in hi-fi are, and let me explain what I mean by this.

When putting the Orchid into the system and doing a proper before and after listen, the immediate results for my ears and perception was a wider and deeper and taller sound stage. I got more transient information and that affects timbre of an instrument to an extent – harmonics that have that extra emphasis that aren’t lost on the edges adds information to the musical picture. If it were a painting it might be described as seeing colours that are slightly brighter because the ambient lighting has changed up a notch.

But here’s the kicker. Take that away and all of a sudden you will notice, and that does feel a bit like a kick in the guts. Having heard it you can’t un-hear it. It’s that little loss of sparkle that one suddenly feels robbed of – had we not known it was there to begin with everything would have been fine…

This is what I call the reverse process – the additions feel subtle but when they are taken away the loss feels greater.

Salesmen, feel free to EFT me a commission.

The same goes for the speaker cables. The Inspirations are a serious cable as evidenced by their stats. I noted a tightening up of the low end of my sub bass where there appeared to be less boom and more control. I also felt that there was more solidity to the midrange with vocals having a slightly more nuanced polish at louder volumes. Once again, taking this away after a few days is more revealing than putting it in place to begin with as once again the loss of what once was becomes apparent.

I am deliberately not going to expand further on ever increasing detail on ever more subtle influences that I perceived. That isn’t going to help anyone – I am not an influencer(er). My job is to point out what I heard, and why I believe that cabling is a personally experienced phenomenon. Yes. You can live with patch cables and R5/m speaker wires. Absolutely.

But. When you have heard that extra layering of detail, or musicality, or bass control, or whatever it is that your ears pick up, I challenge you to try and live without it! You’ll go nuts. And your mental health is important to me.

Lastly, I have to touch on the build quality of the cables. It is exceptional. The Orchid may look thin but it still feels as if it could tow a bus. Termination is out of the top drawer and the RCAs grip with reassurance that you have a solid electrical connection that it not going to let you down. The same applies in equal measure to the Inspirations. There is a heft and solidity to them with superb termination that can be customised to your spec. I fully expect that both will last you a lifetime and even if these are the last cables you ever buy it is hard to see regret in doing so.

Give Dayne a call and take a listen for yourself.

William Kelly