VAN DEN HUL THE FROG GOLD

Used. Supplied with original packaging and accessories.

A high-end moving-coil (MC) cartridge, handcrafted for vinyl record playback. Its design aims to achieve high tracking precision and detailed, dynamic and natural sound reproduction, with particular attention to transparency and soundstage definition.

Compared with the standard version, it uses gold-wire coils manufactured using Matched Crystal technology, designed to ensure precise conversion of mechanical information into an electrical signal. The generator also incorporates a modified magnet and combines design elements from the Grasshopper III and Grasshopper IV cartridges, adopting the coil configuration of the former and the front pole piece and suspension system of the latter.

The cartridge features a proprietary Van den Hul VDH-IS stylus with a 2 × 85 µm profile and a boron cantilever. This configuration is designed to accurately track groove modulations and reproduce transients with precision, contributing to an articulate presentation, good separation of sound elements and a well-defined soundstage.

The Frog Gold is intended for high-quality analogue systems and is suitable for tonearms with an effective mass of 6 to 10 g. Connecting it to an MC phono preamplifier with adjustable parameters allows the electrical load to be matched to the cartridge's characteristics. The available sources report conflicting output voltage values of 0.65 mV and 0.75 mV; the specification for the particular product version should therefore be verified.

Technical specifications:

• Type: Moving-coil (MC) cartridge
• Output voltage: 0.75 mV
• Frequency response: 5 - 55,000 Hz
• Stylus shape: VDH 1S
• Stylus radii: 2 × 85 µm
• Tracking force: 1.35 - 1.50 g
• Anti-skating force: 0.4 - 0.6 g
• Static compliance: 35 µm/mN
• Tracking ability: 70 - 80 µm
• Channel imbalance: Less than 0.3 dB
• Channel separation: Greater than 35/30 dB
• Stylus tip mass: 0.32 mg
• Load impedance: 500 Ω (greater than 200 Ω)
• Optimum load impedance: 20 - 200 Ω
• Load capacitance: Non-critical
• Internal MC resistance: 16 Ω
• Recommended tonearm effective mass: 6 - 10 g
• Weight: 8.2 g