About The First Metal Screen RCA Cable
The Van Den Hul The First Metal Screen RCA interconnect is a threefold heavier shielded version of the highly praised VDH classic The First. It also features a densely braided metal screen for superior hum and noise rejection and exhibits a staggeringly low shield resistance.
The First Metal Screen is effectively an unbalanced version of Van den Hul's highly regarded The Second interconnect and as such is only available as an RCA interconnect. It is particularly effective when used in high noise & hum environments such as valve equipment, turntables or where longer runs are required (to special order).
The original The First was the world's first Metal Free interconnect and was designed for the highest quality (unbalanced / asymmetric / RCA) line level audio connections. The First Ultimate was Van den Hul's follow up version and it was a threefold heavier shielded version of The First. The First Metal Screen is the latest member of the range and the highest performing version.
The major difference between the members of 'The First' series is their shield resistance: Van den Hul's The First, The First Ultimate and The First Metal Screen progressively exhibit a lower shield resistance. (Respectively: ~14, ~4.8 and 0.0049 Ohm/m)
Although the First Ultimate 100% metal free cable performs hum and noise free in more than 95% of all line level interconnect applications, The First Metal Screen with its much lower shield resistance has been specially designed for those situations where excessive ground currents flowing through the cable shield are present (e.g. with some valve equipment), in complex grounding situations and/or where extra shielding against strong external electrical interference is required (e.g. in highly electrical noise polluted areas).
Although the Van Den Hul The First Metal Screen has a 'high purity, dense silver coated, super pure matched-crystal oxygen free copper screen' the conductors are still linear structured carbon so the signal never travels down any metal at all. The sonic results are so different and also so much better than found with any metal conductor product that Van den Hul claim it is a complete breakthrough in cable technology. Besides the many innovative technical aspects of this product, Van den Hul claim its sonic aspects are even more outstanding, especially the lack of dynamic compression on higher signal levels.
The extended low level information and the total lack of any harshness make this cable so different from any other similarly priced product. For critical listeners with high demands on spatial reproduction, this could be your final choice in an Audio Interconnect as the folk from Van Den Hul say there is no other product so far produced, that renders so much spatial information as The First Metal Screen.
Conductors: The basic conductor material is Linear Structured Carbon (LSC). The First Metal Screen has a LSC centre conductor with 12,000 individually insulated 7 micron strands with a total diameter of 1 mm. The individual strand insulation prevents electrons from crossing from fibre to fibre. The direct result is that electrons exclusively move through the 7 micron strands in one dimension. Side movements are virtually impossible. This prevents a lot of audio problems. Sonic result: a much cleaner sound reproduction. The centre core insulation is made of polyethylene foam to achieve a low capacitance between the inner and outer group with minimal dielectric absorption.
Metal Shield: Why is The First Metal Screen equipped with a metal shield? With their classic The First Ultimate, connecting to some brands of tube amplifiers in very rare occasions a slight background hum is audible. This weak hum is caused by excessive "ground currents" flowing through the (unbalanced) cable's resistive shield, adding up to the audio signal. The First Metal Screen's High purity dense Silver coated high purity Matched Crystal OFC shield exhibits a much reduced electrical series resistance, thus minimizing the risk of experiencing hum problems.
What are these so called "ground currents"? Due to the fact that most audio equipment in your installation is powered by the mains voltage, an unavoidable hum voltage residual is induced on all cabinets and audio grounds. At all audio devices these residual voltages are of different magnitude (or phase) and will balance out by means of ground currents flowing through the shields of your interconnecting cables. Generally, these ground currents are in the same order of magnitude as the audio signal currents being transferred (microAmperes) and when using unbalanced interconnects they are likely to interfere, thereby reducing transparency and imaging. The outer jacket is made of apricot coloured Hulliflex 4 with black type printing. Hulliflex 4 provides superb mechanical protection and exhibits very high chemical stability.
About Van den Hul
Not long ago Audio Trends was graced with a visit by A. J. Van den Hul himself. He was 80 and still at the top of his game with an endlessly enquiring mind and the mental and physical dexterity to construct one of his famous moving coil cartridges from scratch in the shop whilst being filmed doing it. He then took said cartridge into one of our studios and had a listen. He did this twice and each time decided there were tweaks he could make to the cartridge to make it sound better. This kind of dedication extends to the design, construction and sound quality of everything Van den Hul make, even an entry level interconnect like The Name or The Clearwater speaker cable and this is why we have continued to recommend Van den Hul for so many years now. Established in Holland in 1980, Van den Hul continue to innovate and will no doubt be developing and making class leading products for the foreseeable future.
Our Take On The First Metal Screen RCA Cable
The result of all this innovative work is a product that is almost perfect. Tests with many different combinations of equipment have demonstrated clearly detectable improvements and not just with experienced listeners. The First Metal Screen performs well on all levels of equipment. As such The First Metal Screen is especially suited as an interconnect between valve equipment or to transport lower level signals such as from phono cartridges. Also, unlike the First Ultimate the First Metal Screen is available (to special order) in longer lengths where its hum & noise resistance will be even more apparent.
Main Features & Specifications
- Product Description: Stereo RCA unbalanced interconnect cable
- Cable Type: Coaxial
- Conductor Material: Linear Structured Carbon
- Conductors: 12,000 individually insulated 7 micron strands
- External Diameter: 7.5 mm
- Core Insulation: PE foam
- Jacket: Hulliflex 4
- Jacket Colour: Apricot
- Core Resistance: ~36 Ohm/m
- Screen resistance: 0.0049 Ohm/m
- Capacitance: 61 pF/m
- Connectors: RCA type C-8.0
- Available Lengths: 1 Metre; 1.5 Metre
- Manufacturer's Warranty: 5 Years - Does not cover misuse or abuse
Note: Features & Specifications Subject To Change Without Notice. E&OE.