Van den Hul Crimson Elite XGW

REVIEW
Ed Selley
Feb 12, 2025

The last few years have been transitional ones for Van den Hul. Owner and founder AJ Van den Hul has taken a small step back from running the company to allow his sons to become more involved in both production and administration. Part of this process is that cartridge production is now undertaken by William Van den Hul, and the Crimson Elite XGW is the first new release since this changeover occurred.

The Crimson Elite XGW is a development of the existing Crimson model and uses the ‘Stradivarius’ lacquer that appeared in 2018 as a covering for its CNC machined Koa wood body. Designed to mimic the lacquer of the legendary violins and control resonances, the multi-stage application process takes six months before any actual assembly can take place.

As is traditional with higher-end models from Van den Hul, the generator that attaches to this body is completely nude. It comprises the company’s crystal gold wire in the coils, which are matched to each cartridge, combined with a solid boron cantilever mounting the company’s proprietary stylus profile. To elevate the Crimson to Elite status, the wire thickness is reduced, and the suspension is uprated to reduce the effective mass.

Stradiwhovius?

The output from these revisions is a little lower than the Crimson Stradivarius but still unusually high for a moving coil design at 0.85mV. This means that gain isn’t an issue, but some care will need to be taken to avoid overloading the input of some phono stage designs. It isn’t the only quirky aspect of the Crimson Elite’s measurements either. The review sample tracked at a relatively low 1.35-1.50 gram window with minimal suggested anti-skate applied. It’s also only fair to point out that, as no stylus guard is supplied, fitting the Crimson Elite is somewhat terrifying, although the two pairs of mounting holes to handle different arms and well-spaced cartridge pins do help a little.

Something that does warrant mention as a positive for the Van den Hul, though, is that the cost of ownership is more front-loaded than many premium rivals. Inclusive in the price is a check-up service at 250 hours to check the suspension after the burn-in period. Stylus life is quoted at around 2,000 hours, and tip and damper replacement would be £440 at December 2023 prices, which gives the Crimson Elite rather less horrendous running costs than many high-end carts.

Clocking the hours

I suspect that many owners will clock up 2,000 hours pretty quickly though. Connected to a Vertere MG-1 MkII turntable and running into a Rega Aura phono stage, the Van den Hul demonstrates virtues that I have come to appreciate from the brand but mixed in with some new attributes at the same time. I’ve been using Every Day by The Cinematic Orchestra [Ninja Tune] as a test piece ever since I began reviewing turntables. The moment Fontella Bass began singing in All that you give it becomes abundantly clear that this is a startlingly vivid device. She is present in a way that bypasses any perception of mechanical process. And to achieve this startling ability to bring a sense of ‘live’ to any voice and instrument required a beautifully evolved version of a Van den Hul trademark.

Where the Van den Hul Crimson Elite XGW kicks on, quite literally, is when you move away from the audiophile and ask it to power its way though Blues Funeral by the Mark Lanegan Band [4AD]. The ballistic opening The Gravedigger’s Song would not traditionally have been a happy hunting ground for some of the Crimson Elite’s ancestors but here it simply grips and goes. It has a remarkable ability to decompress material like this, prying it open and finding space where previously there wasn’t any. It does this without impinging on the sheer musical fury that this track is supposed to possess. This newfound energy and rhythmic competence has meant that bits of my collection I might not have made a beeline for with older models are now completely fair game.

Admirably

This is helped by all the basics being handled admirably. Bass response is deep and detailed, feeding into that effortless midrange and never letting up on the astonishingly tangible tonal realism throughout. In this setup, the presentation is very fractionally forward and the Crimson Elite will point out when a pressing isn’t the last word in fidelity without rendering the results unlistenable. Compared to the Platanus 3.0S that won our 2023 award and that was tested in the same basic setup, the Van den Hul is more perceivable in what it does and you can detect its presence in the performance that it creates in a way that the Platanus goes out of its way to avoid. It is wrong to say it’s coloured but there is a character to it that is a little more overt.

I make no bones about loving this overall performance, though. The Crimson Elite is a deceptively simple-looking device that delivers an out-and-out musical joy that marks it out as something special, even judged at its lofty price point. The Van den Hul makes all your vinyl listening an event, and this all-important ability has survived the handover of production from father to son. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what might come next.