Van Den Hul what is the best cart ?


I will probabely buy a van den hul cartridge, but regardless to the price, I don't know what to choose. My dealer says that black beauty gold 0.85mV is a very fine cartridge, but I read a lot of very fine reviews of the colibri.
And about the colibri what should be the best ? copper or gold ? 0.20mv or 0.30mv ?
I've got a VPI aries 3 + JMW 10.5i and for the moment a zyz 4D copper.

Thanx
andychris

Showing 1 response by lewm

IMO, there is nothing at all to be worried about with a VdH cartridge per se. However, the problem in recommending one vs another is that there are SO many variations on any of the basic themes. For example, there are at least a half dozen or more variations of the Colibri alone. And since they are hand made one might expect sample to sample variation, to add to the confusion. I owned a low output copper coil Colibri, and it was very nice, for what that's worth. In general, I have consistently found that high output MCs do not sound as good as the low output version of that same cartridge, if that helps. For example, HO version of ZYX UNI not as good as LO version. Sometimes, you just have to take a shot in the dark and try something for yourself. Reviews in commercial publications are utterly useless, too.