Van den Hul The Crimson
The Crimson brings vinyl’s smallest gestures into vivid focus, pairing lightning-fast transients with tonal sweetness, deep controlled bass and a spacious, lifelike stage. HiFi News admired its organic musical flow, while Enjoy The Music found its quiet tracking and finely resolved imaging exceptional. This is a hand-built moving-coil cartridge that makes dense recordings feel effortless and alive.
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Deliciously Crispy
Sound Quality
95/100
Build Quality
86/100
Features Usability
84/100
Value for Money
94/100
Pros
Combines exceptional speed, attack and dynamics with a sweet, natural tonal character rather than an analytical edge.
Retrieves fine musical detail and remains composed through crowded, dynamic passages, including inner-groove material.
Produces expansive, accurately scaled imaging with deep, controlled bass and convincing instrumental realism.
High output and comparatively affordable rebuild servicing improve long-term practicality versus many premium moving-coil rivals.
Cons
Installation demands care: the exposed, long cantilever is vulnerable, and threaded inserts may detach if mounting screws are overtightened.
Precise setup is essential; one reviewer found lower tracking-force settings less stable on highly dynamic records.
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What Reviewers Are Saying
SOUND QUALITY PERFORMANCE 95/100
Across the Crimson family, reviewers describe an unusually natural, vivid and emotionally involving presentation that combines speed, tonal sweetness and exceptional resolution. It is especially praised for making complex music feel coherent and lifelike rather than merely analytical.
Overall Sound
96/100
Hi-Fi+ calls its musical appeal something special even at a lofty price, while HiFi News praises its rare combination of speed and sweetness. Reviewers repeatedly hear realistic instrumental timbre, deep and controlled bass, a neutral core with refined treble sweetness, and a direct connection to the musical performance.
Tracking Retrieval
95/100
The Crimson is widely praised for extracting fine musical information while staying composed through dense and dynamic material. Enjoy The Music reports crystal-clear reproduction on innermost tracks and crowded choral passages, while Positive Feedback found no mistracking and strong transient handling at the correct tracking force; one reviewer did find that a slightly higher setting was needed for demanding records.
Soundstage Imaging
95/100
Spatial presentation is a major strength, with Positive Feedback calling width and depth state of the art and Enjoy The Music describing a deep, wide, accurately scaled stage. HiFi News found the stage exceptionally expansive, though it could occasionally seem almost too large on modest recordings.
FEATURES USABILITY PERFORMANCE 84/100
Tonearm compatibility / system fit.
Tonearm Compatibility
84/100
Van den Hul can tailor compliance, stylus length and output impedance to suit a particular tonearm and phono stage, an unusual advantage for carefully assembled systems. Setup nonetheless calls for care: the long cantilever is vulnerable, mounting hardware should not be over-tightened, and reviewers stress the importance of dialing in tracking force accurately.
Assessments of Build Quality, Usability, and Overall Propositions.
Build Quality
86/100
The handmade wooden body and resonance-controlling lacquer receive strong praise, and owners found the wooden base easy to grip during mounting. However, HiFi News reports cosmetic shortcomings, exposed vulnerable internals, and threaded inserts that can detach if the cartridge is tightened too aggressively.
Value for Money
94/100
At roughly $4,200-$5,495, The Crimson is unquestionably a costly cartridge, but reviewers repeatedly argue that its performance supports the outlay. Enjoy The Music calls it a bargain relative to substantially pricier rivals and notes the comparatively affordable rebuild service, while other reviewers find that it delivers a level of musical satisfaction difficult to obtain for less.
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Specifications
- Specifications
- Following
Manufacturer's Description — Van den Hul
Just when you think “It doesn’t get any better”…
The Crimson is a top performance custom handbuilt moving coil phono cartridge. This is the result of a crossbreed of our models “The Canary” and “The Condor”. This cartridge is available in natural light wood colour, dark wood colour and a red coloured (also wooden) version. The wooden models are all available with a special lacquer which is the orginial lacquer of the stradivarius. All the wooden models are available as the new “Crimson Stradivarius” which gives the cartridge a unique sound impression. On special request a Polycarbonate body is available.
Specific characteristics for this great cartridge are a relatively high (0,65mV) output, gold coils, a Samarium-Cobalt magnet, extended channel separation and superb tracking ability.
As the popularity of vinyl is reviving again, many requests came in to develop a High-end phono cartridge for a more affordable price than The Colibri. The Crimson is the result and probably one of the cartridges with the best value for money available. It is completely hand built by the Master himself and comes with a 200 hour service check-up, free of charge (for the original owner).
Special Edition CRIMSON XGA now available with Titanium & Amber Body & Gold Coils.
Production time:
The production time for a CRIMSON cartridge after ordering is about three weeks. Please call your authorized distributor for delivery time.
Verified Dealers
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Authorized dealers for Van den Hul The Crimson
- 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