Van den Hul The Wave review

With one of vdH's less bizarre names, but a truly distinctive colour to its jacket, The Wave is a new model from the company's confusingly vast range.

It uses silver-plated copper conductors (the more upmarket ones use carbon strands), polythene insulation, coaxial construction and a 'Hulliflex' jacket. Apparently the green colour signifies the 25th anniversary of vdH's green mission to make cables that do not harm the environment.

Strong imaging

The central conductor is a generous 0.9mm diameter and the internal dimensions are such that the cable is also suited to video duty and indeed digital audio interconnection. It's a little thicker and less flexible than other rival cables, but still perfectly practical and it is fitted with very nice collet-clamp phono plugs which, in principle, give better termination to coaxial wire than the usual types.

We found this cable had a full-bodied and clearly defined sound across the registers. It has a very slightly fuller upper bass, which may tickle some tastes, but this does not seem to have any adverse effect on rhythm, which is lively and precise.

Treble is cleanly extended and once again there is a lovely natural quality to the way delicate high-frequency sounds decay into ambience (given good recordings!). Imaging is very good, with perhaps a slightly longer perspective in the depth direction.

That's something we've noticed once or twice before with vdH cables and we regard it more as a matter of taste than absolute right or wrong. A highly capable and compatible interconnect.