USB DONE RIGHT: Two magic boxes that let computer audio ...

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This multitalented designer and entrepreneur has been around for more years than we can remember. His eponymous Netherlands company is known for a number of products, from phono cartridges (including a stylus shape he invented) to electronics to high-performance cables. Never afraid of innovation, he actually made cables containing no metal (he used carbon fibre instead). One of his new “3T” hybrid interconnect cables is reviewed in this issue. Late in 2011, UHF’s Steve Bourke caught up with him. He revealed the philosophy behind 3T, but he began with everything he had learned over the years about record playback. * * * UHF: When you’re playing an LP, and the stylus touches down on the record, what happens to the record itself? AJV: There’s a minor deformation resulting from the displacement forces. UHF: And is there a sharp rise in temperature at that point? AJV: A higher temperature, yes. I’ve measured a temperature of five to six 28 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine Rendezvous A. J. Van den Hul degrees higher than the environmental temperature. There is some deformation of the groove, but only for mechanical reasons. There is no thermal deformation. UHF: So there is some distortion of the groove? AJV: But there will be restoration of the groove shape, because the temperature is far under that which would cause permanent deformation. UHF: Is that the reason that vinyl records last as long as they do? AJV: There are other factors. The stylus must fit exactly in the groove. As soon as you use a spherical stylus, there’s much more a deformation, because the friction is much higher. UHF: Really! AJV: The next step is the elliptical stylus. The temperature rise is a little less than with a spherical, but still. One that doesn’t raise the temperature much is the Shibata stylus. That’s because its cross section is half circular, half elliptical. There is another shape, used by some companies, which copy the shape of the cutting chisel. However, there is another “but.” The angle of the stylus relative to the groove is not exacty 90°. The result is that sometimes the stylus moves up, because it is squeezed by the groove sides, or it is bottoming. The only stylus that fits in any situation is still mine. Of course some companies don’t want to pay the royalty. UHF: What is the most difficult aspect of building a cartridge? AJV: It’s the adjustment of the stylus exactly in line with the position of the armature. And as far as the structure goes, it’s the fine tuning of the cartridge — the cantilever at one end, and the suspension and the rubber at the other end. You have to be careful, because there’s a magnification effect, As the stylus moves up and down, he top of the stylus must be in exactly the same position as the 45-45 coil. You have to do it by eye. You have to adjust it for maximum response and maximum channel separation. UHF: It sounds like surgery. If you move your hand too much in one direction or the other, will the cartridge then be damaged? Will you have to begin all over again? AJV: If you are beginner, then yes, for sure. I have very specific tools, some 40 or 50 of them lying around my microscope. I have a number of tweezers, each for its own job. I have magnetic tweezers, non-magnetic tweezers, very precise tools, each for a particular purpose. UHF: Have you used the same tools throughout your career? AJV: I obtained them many years ago, and I maintain their quality by polishing them. For screwdrivers, I use a very precise grinding stone, so that they have the shape to fit perfectly into the screws, so that they don’t slip and damage the evironment. UHF: These are tools you made. AJV: Yes, because when you don’t find what you need, you build it yourself. Adhesives are very important too. UHF: You use some special space-age glue? AJV: I use Locktite 401. It is commonly used for screws that are tightened, so that they don’t come loose again. But you
have to be careful with it. I regularly get a drop on my trousers, or on my T-shirt. But I don’t care. UHF: Do you wear gloves when you’re working? AJV: Never. UHF: Have you ever accidentally injured yourself while assembling a cartridge? AJV: Sometimes. You hold the cartridge in one hand, and you have a tool with a very shap cutting edge in the other hand. And if you’re very unlucky, when you’re repaiting a cartridge something breaks away. But that’s all over now, I don’t do these things anymore. UHF: When you are gluing the diamond to the cantilever, how tiny is the patch of glue that you are using? AJV: A fraction of a cubic millimetre. A fraction. If you use too much it may look at first as if you’ve done a great job, but the stylus is completely encapsulated in adhesive. Customers don’t like that, being greater experts than I am! And second, it makes a mess, and that’s something you don’t want. The lower the moving mass, the better. Mass has inertia. Less is better. UHF: And that’s why your cartridge bodies are not massive. AJV: Specifically, the design is minimalistic. UHF: If you asked a composer which of his creations he was proudest of, Bartok or Bach might make this or that choice. Is there one aspect of your cartridge designs, other than your world-famous line contact stylus, that you are particularly proud of? AJV: Yes, the damping rubber. It is very difficult to put the right ingredients together to get the right damping. I’m very lucky to have the right one, I keep it in the deep freezer… UHF: The deep freezer? AJV: Yes, to maintain the quality. There’s no air exposure, and there’s no chemical exposure, and so it remains in pristine condition. But to have a damping rubber that is stable over a long period is extremely difficult. That is often ignored, and if you don’t pay attention to it, forget it. It is a very serious part of the construction of a cartridge. UHF: And if the rubber deteriorates, that will have a profound effect on the sound of the cartridge. AJV: Yes, it must be soft, and not exposed to any chemicals. But if the space where the turntable is placed is open to the kitchen, where you fry fish or whatever, that is bad. Any kind of oil is bad. There’s a little bit just from your body, but any oil is bad. Then there’s the question of cleaning the cartridge. You don’t use a liquid that is toxic, and you don’t use a liquid that contains old oil from previous cleanings. You reach over the cantilever and over the oil, and reach back to the camping rubber. UHF: And that can cause the cartridge to lose its integrity. AJV: Yes, the repositioning forces of the rubber are finished. It becomes soft and easier to move, and sticky, and it stops damping. UHF: What do you recommend? AJV: I recommend a good vodka. You fill the cap with vodka, and use a brush to get a little bit of it to clean the stylus. Once you have done that, you stop cleaning, and then you drink the vodka, to celebrate having a clean cartridge. Vodka doesn’t contain any sugar or caramel, like Jack Daniels. It is pure alcohol, and the best cleaning fluid you can get. But never reuse it. People who reuse their cleaning fluid, or put the brush back in the fluid afterward, are brushing the dirt back onto the stylus. UHF: I want to go back to an interview you gave back in 1986… AJV: That was a long time ago! UHF: You said that the LP creates a spaciousness and depth that digital music cannot. Do you think that’s still true? AJV: Yes, it’s still true, but CD is getting better, and there are some whose sound I really enjoy, but on average the number of LPs with spacious information is higher. It’s partly because of the processing, and partly because of the technology, and the education of one’s ears. The musical education, aimed at enjoying music, is fading away. But the technology itself cannot produced the highest resolution, as you can have with analog recording. Part of it is the medium, and part of it is the art of making the recording. Many engineers use a great number of microphones, and that reduces spatial information. There are all kinds of phase effects among the sounds recorded by the microphones. The use of two or three microphones — for stereo, I’m not taling about multichannel recording — is the only way to maintain accurate spatial information patterns. It’s not because of frequency response, but of timing. The CD goes to 20.05 kHz, but if the timing is not right, then the spaciousness is mostly lost. UHF: Do you foresee that, in the area of LP production, there might be a technological advance yet to be discovered? AJV: I doubt it, because the world interest in LPs is very limited. Many people do enjoy LPs, but for the younger generations the LP is a curiosity, just as we regard the phonograph of Thomas Edison as a curiosity. That’s a pity, but it’s the case. However interest in LPs is still very big, as I can see from the number of cartridge repairs we make. UHF: Can you put a number, worldwide, of the number of LP listeners? AJV: I’ve been thinking about this question, and I think it would be four to five million. That’s it. UHF: In the field of musical production in general, do you see improvements that need to be made in the next 20 to 30 years? AJV: If a piece of music is accepted by the listener, it doesn’t mean it’s good. It means only that the recording and the taste of the listener are a match. If the listeners then attend live concerts, they become aware of the much greater ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 29 Rendezvous Feedback
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Page 55 and 56: INTERCONNECTS ATLAS HYPER SYMMETRIC
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