Van den Hul Colibri XGW Phono Cartridge – Gold Wire Coils and Grenadille African Black Wood.

Only the best parts were used to make this exclusive and rare Van den Hul Colibri XGW that has been considered by many analog experts as of the best phono cartridge ever made. The cartridge is fairly priced so no low ballers or tire kickers please, they will be politely ignored. Retail Price USD 7,500. I’m selling it for only USD 2,800.

It comes in the original wood box, hand signed by Mr. Van den Hul and it has never been used.

Shipping by FedEx Economy to USA, Canada and Mexico included at my asking price.

NOTE: Shown dimensions are of the wooden box, it will be packed inside a larger box for better protection.

Insurance is optional if needed at buyers expense: 2% of total declared value.

Customs Clearance, duties and taxes are buyers responsibility.

Hand-Built by Mr. Van den Hul himself using only premium parts, matched crystal gold coils and the body has been made from Grenadille Black Wood from Mozambique with remarkable acoustical properties.

Matched with the right turntable, phono preamp and interconnect the Colibri XGW delivers an open, extended, lively and warm sound with rich textures, inner detail and harmonic resolution. Black background with natural tones and timbres with superb sound stage and incredible dynamic range with articulated and controlled bass.

Van den Hul Colibri-XGW (X = cross shaped modulator, G = matched crystal Gold wire coils. W = wood body) phono cartridge serial number HG3B190.

Tracking force: 1.35-1.50 grms.
Anti Skating Force: 0.6-0.8 grms.
EFF Arm Mass: 10-16 grms.
Load Impedance: 50 ohms to 47 kohms
Optimal Load Impedance: 50-500 ohms
Output Level 0.38 mV at 5.6 sec/cm

“AJ Van den Hul himself assures all Colibri owners with at least 4000 hours of service life and many times even more. It truly is a worthwhile audio investment!”.

Matched with the right turntable, phono preamp and interconnect the Apollo delivers an open, extended, lively and warm sound with rich textures, inner detail and harmonic resolution. Black background with natural tones and timbres with superb sound stage and incredible dynamic range with articulated and controlled bass.

From The Van den Hul Site:

“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 front pole is has been possible to apply an even shorter cantilever; this further improves the groove-modulation-transduction’s directness and accuracy”.