Van den Hul The Colibri
Van den Hul The Colibri brings vinyl’s finest details into startling focus, pairing low-level resolution with explosive transients and a vast, deeply layered soundstage. Positive Feedback admired its tonal color and spatial scale, while Audiophilia highlighted exceptionally quiet, revealing playback. This is an artisanal moving-coil cartridge for systems ready to expose every musical nuance.
WATT RECOMMENDS
Save your favorites. Compare them anytime.
Create a free HiFi Hub account to save products to your Wishlist and compare your favorites side by side.
Nicely Roasted
Sound Quality
92/100
Build Quality
87/100
Features Usability
89/100
Value for Money
85/100
Pros
Exceptional low-level retrieval reveals subtle ambience, instrumental textures and recorded detail.
Expansive, deep imaging creates large-scale spatial realism, particularly on orchestral recordings.
Powerful transient expression and rich tonal color give vocals and instruments vivid presence.
Cons
Meticulous VTA setup is essential; incorrect adjustment can make the upper range sound edgy and bright.
The exposed cantilever has no protective cover, demanding extra care during mounting and handling.
Its highly revealing presentation can be unforgiving of poor recordings and surface flaws.
WATT RECOMMENDS
Save your favorites. Compare them anytime.
Create a free HiFi Hub account to save products to your Wishlist and compare your favorites side by side.
What Reviewers Are Saying
SOUND QUALITY PERFORMANCE 92/100
Across its variants, The Colibri is praised for exceptional transparency, low-level resolution, vivid transient expression and an unusually expansive spatial presentation. Its balance is not universally lush: one reviewer found the Master Signature leaner, more austere and potentially edgy when VTA is off, while others heard warmth, richness and natural tonal color.
Overall Sound
91/100
Reviewers describe an exceptionally transparent and detailed presentation with powerful transients, rich but unsyrupy midrange color, and convincing instrumental body. The Master Signature is less forgiving than the warmer descriptions of other versions suggest, sounding somewhat lean and stern in the upper range and exposing sibilance in challenging pressings.
Tracking Retrieval
91/100
Retrieval of low-level information receives especially emphatic praise, including descriptions of astonishing detail, very low surface noise, ease, and low distortion. One reviewer reports flawless tracking at 1.5g, though the cartridge is sensitive to VTA and can turn bright or edgy if alignment is not carefully optimized.
Soundstage Imaging
96/100
Spatial performance is a major strength. Reviews cite an unusually spacious, deep and wide soundstage, palpable three-dimensional images, and imaging competitive with leading cartridges; one comparison found it noticeably deeper and slightly wider than Lyra's best.
FEATURES USABILITY PERFORMANCE 89/100
Tonearm compatibility / system fit.
Tonearm Compatibility
89/100
Its specified medium 20µm compliance is described as making it broadly compatible with tonearms, and it performed flawlessly in a VPI dual-pivot arm. Careful setup remains important: the long exposed cantilever needs caution during mounting, and VTA adjustment has a pronounced effect on tonal balance.
Assessments of Build Quality, Usability, and Overall Propositions.
Build Quality
87/100
The Colibri is described as a bespoke, artisanal cartridge with a distinctive open body and long exposed cantilever. That exposed stylus arrangement provides useful clearance in some installations, but the lack of a protective cover is a real practical concern at this price.
Value for Money
85/100
One reviewer says its groove retrieval is well worth the price of admission, reflecting performance that can satisfy listeners seeking top-tier resolution and spatiality. At $11,995, however, another reviewer explicitly raises the high price and questions the absence of even a stylus cover, so its appeal is strongest for well-equipped enthusiasts who will exploit its capabilities.
Reviews & Sources
Professional reviews and sources for this product's Watt'n Potatoes analysis.
Online Reviews & Mentions
YouTube Reviews
Forum Mentions
No forum mentions found yet
Manufacturer's Description — Van den Hul
Our top model custom hand built phono cartridge The Colibri, featuring matched crystal copper coils with 0.30 or 0.38mV/channel output. A version with matched crystal gold coils and 0.65 mV/channel, output is also available.
As a result of phono cartridge builder A.J. van den Hul’s continuous research into improving his phono cartridge designs our top model “The Colibri” has seen the light of day.
The Colibri is the improved successor to our Grasshopper “Beauty” series of phono cartridges where many building components have been removed in a highly successful quest to return to the plain essence of phono transduction.
The result is an unbelievably straightforward sounding “clean and open” design, in all its aspects bearing much resemblance to the “Colibri” named tropical bird’s swiftness, elegance and beauty; Hence the cartridge’s name.
Compared to our GRASSHOPPER “BEAUTY” series the following differences stand out:
- By minimizing and adapting the cartridge’s total magnetic circuit the related distortion and (Barkhausen) noise have undergone a considerable decrease. This opens up many subtle sound details that never have been heard before; Especially the decay of instrument sounds now stands out much more clearly in the music’s totality.
- Due to the minimization of the cartridge’s total magnetic circuit the cartridge’s mass has been reduced. Together with the possibility to tune the cartridge’s static compliance on special customer demand it is now possible to use very light tonearms whilst maintaining a very good tracking ability.
- By removing the frontpole is has been possible to apply an even shorter cantilever; This further improves the groove-modulation-transduction’s directness and accuracy.
- Due to the minimal magnetic design the output voltage has slightly reduced.
The Colibri is available in three main versions:
XG Version: (X = cross shaped modulator, G = matched crystal Gold wire coils)
- Medium output, most suitable for classical music
- Output voltage: 0.38 mV/channel
- Types available: XGW, XGP, XGM, XGA (-W, -P, -M and -A type see extra info)
XC Version: (X = cross shaped modulator, C = matched crystal Copper wire coils)
- Low output all-round model
- Output voltage: 0.30 mV/channel
- Types available: XCW, XCP, XCM, XCA (-W, -P, -M and -A type see extra info)
XC-HO & XG-HO Version: (X = cross shaped modulator, C = matched crystal Copper wire coils, G = matched crystal Gold wire coils, HO = High Output)
- High output, most suitable for jazz music
- Output voltage: 0.65 mV/channel
- Types available: XCW-HO, XCP-HO, XCM-HO and XCA-HO (-W, -P, -M and -A type see extra info)
XGW-HO, XGP-HO, XGM-HO and XGA-HO (-W, -P, -M and -A type see extra info)
Special customer demands/specifications:
Thanks to the many variations in materials available, it is always possible to build a unit to match the personal demands of the customer. With these personalized cartridges the wooden container can mention the name of the customer it has been specially built for. This option is exclusively available for The Canary, The Grasshopper III series, The Grasshopper IV, The Grasshopper “Beauty”, The Condor and The Colibri versions.
The customer demands/specifications that can be taken into account when building a personalized cartridge for instance are:
The tone-arm used, the pre-amp and load impedance used, a particular brand of records to be played, the type of music generally played (jazz being more dynamic and classical more spacious and detailed) and other personal/sound preferences.
Frequency response from the Colibri:
Verified Dealers
Online Dealers
All Dealers
Zoom out the map to see more dealers
Authorized dealers for Van den Hul The Colibri
- Acoustic Sounds — online and in-store — Salina, Kansas, United States (website)
- Alta Fedelta — online and in-store — Lombardia, Italy (website)
- Analogue Seduction — online and in-store — Whittlesey, England, United Kingdom (website)
- Artisan Fidelity — in-store — Dyer, Indiana, United States (website)
- Audio Advisors — in-store — West Palm Beach, Florida, United States (website)
- Audio Centrum — Hungary (website)
- Audio Evolution — online and in-store — Volla, Campania, Italy (website)
- Audio Influence — online and in-store — Fitzroy North, Victoria, Australia (website)
- Audio Sound Music — online and in-store — Paris, Île-de-France, France (website)
- AUDIOPHILE HIFI — online and in-store — Tours, Centre-Val de Loire, France (website)
and 55 more verified dealers