Sunday, February 9, 2025
Home Megatest speaker cables – 32 cables listened to and measured!

Megatest speaker cables – 32 cables listened to and measured!

15

Van den Hul

Cable Van den Hul Inspiration Hybrid, Cloud 3T and The Nova
Balance low, mid and high Inspiration: Rich reproduction. Round and full. Treble somewhat mild.

Cloud 3T: Not a pleasant balance in our system. Bass does not come through well and mids and high are presented separately from each other.

Nova: Very well balanced. Lots of attack and energy.

Tone of vocals and instruments Inspiration: Warm vocals, but not too much. Lots of information and depth in the instruments.

Cloud 3T: Vocals and woodwinds are easy to follow, but everything in the lower register is not. Little texture underneath.

Nova: Lots of detail and openness. Lots of insight.

Stereo image Inspiration: It comes to you. Nice sound stage; good proportion. Not very large, but intimate.

Cloud 3T: Narrow image and everything seems placed far away. Bit of a tunnel.

Nova: Big picture. Impressive. You have to listen though!

Rhythm Inspiration: Lots of reverb and fast transients. Not most exciting cable in terms of timing. But pleasant.

Cloud 3T: It looks like dynamics with a brake on it. Crazy effect.

Nova: Rhythmically a strong cable. Attack, punchy…

Overall Inspiration: Very correct cable. Rich playback. Snappy and fast. But also relaxed.

Cloud 3T: Crazy effect. Music feels a little dead. Bass is not good. It’s a balance problem.

Nova: We know again why this is our reference: you can listen very deep into the music. Is it perfect? No… but it is very good! (The perfect cable does not exist by the way).

Material and construction Inspiration: 4 x 1.97mm2 conductors (hybrid / so carbon treated)

Cloud 3T: 8 groups of 3T conductors. Each group is 6 x 7 strands. Total 8 AWG.

Nova: 4 x 8 AWG (8.4mm2) copper / silver conductors (with Hybrid technology ).

Price VdH Inspiration Hybrid: 1599 Euro, Cloud 3T: 2849 Euro , The Nova: 3549 Euro

Measurements Van den Hul

LCR measurements

Propagation variation

VdH Inspiration Hybrid

VdH Cloud 3T

VdH The Nova

Response measurements

Noise measurements

Type test
Multitest
Tested price class
Price cheapest product: €1
Price most expensive product: €21000
Production country
Varies

Winkels met Audioquest

Sint-Antoniusstraat 15
2300 Turnhout, BE
Joseph Bensstraat 21
1180 Ukkel, BE
Pleinweg 136
3083 EP Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, NL
Hooikade 13
2627 Delft, Zuid Holland, NL
Bredabaan 1031
B-2930 Brasschaat, BE
Pelikaanstraat 126
2018 Antwerpen, BE
Schoenmakersstraat 19
6041EX Roermond, NL
Grotestraat 23
5931 CS Tegelen, NL
St. Ceciliastraat 28
5038 HA Tilburg, NL
Geldropseweg 105
5611 SE Eindhoven, NL
Breestraat 146-148
2311CX Leiden, Zuid Holland, NL
Korte Jansstraat 11
3512GM Utrecht, NL
Korevaarstraat 2 e-f
2311 JS Leiden, NL
Koningsstraat 35
2011TC Haarlem, Noord Holland, NL
Theresiastraat 151 - 157
2593 AG Den Haag, Noord Holland, NL
Beethovenstraat 9-b
1077 HL Amsterdam, Noord Holland, NL

Winkels met Chord Company

Schoenmakersstraat 19
6041EX Roermond, NL
St. Ceciliastraat 28
5038 HA Tilburg, NL
Hermesweg 2
3741 GP Baarn, Utrecht, NL
Korevaarstraat 2 e-f
2311 JS Leiden, NL
Koningsstraat 35
2011TC Haarlem, Noord Holland, NL
Steenstraat 54
6828 CM Arnhem, Gelderland, NL
Beethovenstraat 9-b
1077 HL Amsterdam, Noord Holland, NL
Rietlaan 4
3851 PA Ermelo, NL

Winkels met Driade

Cort van der Lindelaan 11
9722 LP Groningen, NL
Fleminglaan
2289 CP Rijswijk, NL
Steenstraat 54
6828 CM Arnhem, Gelderland, NL

Winkels met Dyrholm

Rietlaan 4
3851 PA Ermelo, NL

Winkels met Kimber

Rietlaan 4
3851 PA Ermelo, NL

Winkels met Ricable

Sikkel 40 F
3274 KK Heinenoord, NL

Winkels met Supra

Pleinweg 136
3083 EP Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, NL
Hooikade 13
2627 Delft, Zuid Holland, NL
St. Ceciliastraat 28
5038 HA Tilburg, NL
Breestraat 146-148
2311CX Leiden, Zuid Holland, NL
Korevaarstraat 2 e-f
2311 JS Leiden, NL
Steenstraat 54
6828 CM Arnhem, Gelderland, NL
Beethovenstraat 9-b
1077 HL Amsterdam, Noord Holland, NL
Rietlaan 4
3851 PA Ermelo, NL

Winkels met Van den Hul

Schoenmakersstraat 19
6041EX Roermond, NL
Parkweg 23
8084GG 't Harde, NL
St. Ceciliastraat 28
5038 HA Tilburg, NL
Breestraat 146-148
2311CX Leiden, Zuid Holland, NL
Beethovenstraat 9-b
1077 HL Amsterdam, Noord Holland, NL
Rietlaan 4
3851 PA Ermelo, NL

15 COMMENTS

  1. Hi team,
    This is quite an amazing project that you have done.

    I am trying to use this information to help my selection decision making on some new cables. My conclusion is that the Audiomica ones which you tested seem to be the best value in terms of price vs your feedback about their sound. And from the qualitative feedback it seems like those cables would play well with most systems. Is this a correct conclusion to draw from the testing?

    I understand that I would probably want to try the cables out on my system to make sure that they fit with the sound that I like.

    I am relatively new to hi-fi so I apologise if this is a question that is a philosophically wrong way to think about things.

  2. Hey Jaap, that is a really nice test with lots of information, thanks for that! Would it be possible to have it all into one table for a good overview, instead having to scroll through the individual pages? May be too much to ask 🙂
    Keep up the awesome work!

  3. Standard cable of 2.5mm2… I am using 16mm2 “standard wire”, 3m long. Very low resistance. That ticks one box. I guess I can theoretically calculate the inductance and capacitance. Wonder if these are of significant consequence at 20kHz. Maybe I can twist the cable to reduce the inductance if it has some impact.

  4. This is beyond – need to study it – not just read, to understand.
    Thanks for including the “peasant” installation cable AudioQuest 14/4 – I use the more expensive version XTRM 14/4. My question is – how did you terminate the cable and in what configuration? I have it terminated with nakamichi bananas and connected in a star-quad configuration.
    Martin

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