CRYSTAL CABLE CELEBRATES 20 YEARS
One of audio’s “power couples,” Edwin and Gabi Rijnveld have had plenty to celebrate lately. Last year was Siltech’s 40th anniversary. This year marks Crystal Cable’s 20th, and they have plans for the brand, Gabi Rijnveld told me in a recent conversation from their home in the Netherlands, where their factory is located.
Some of the plans for new products and events are still taking shape, but Rijnveld shared a few highlights, including some music-focused endeavors.
Music, she told me, has always been part of her life. She grew up as a piano prodigy in Hungary, performing in renowned concert halls from an early age. Fast-forwarding decades, and her busy career in global sales and marketing allowed less time for playing music. The pandemic provided the opportunity to resume playing piano more regularly and for Edwin to compose music again.
For Crystal Cable’s 20-year anniversary, the Rijnvelds want to release a CD that includes some recently recorded tracks featuring Gabi playing compositions by Edwin. They’re also revisiting their compilation Arabesque, originally released in 2009. (It shares a name with a Crystal Cable series.) Gabi told me that Arabesque sold 37,000 copies and that people still use it in system demos. She and Edwin are also working on a new compilation, including some newly revised and recorded versions of some of the material from Arabesque. The new compilation will probably also be released as an LP later this year.
“The main goal for all our colleague companies and other listeners is to get [close to] the live experience in their living rooms,” she said. “As a musician, I’m closest to how to bring that to the living room. That’s the magic of live music,” she said. “You can’t capture every bit of it in hi-fi, but we’re still trying to get there as closely as possible.”
Productwise, some special edition upgrades to existing products are forthcoming, as are some altogether new ones.
Reflecting on Crystal Cable’s history, Gabi explained that the idea was conceived after Edwin Rijnveld discovered that with good engineering, he could achieve certain mechanical and physical properties in a smaller, thinner, and more flexible jacket. Compared to Siltech’s thicker, heavier cables, Crystal Cable’s designs are more elegant and pliable.
After about a decade, they decided to separate the Crystal Cable brand from Siltech, in part due to their different mateA
rial and sonic characteristics and divergent customer bases.
Leading Crystal Cable wasn’t an easy road for Gabi, especially at first. “It was not a time for women in audio 20 years ago,” she said.
Times change, but the company’s goals haven’t. It doesn’t seem like 20 years since Crystal Cable began, Rinveld told me. “It feels like yesterday. And the goal is still to make the best high-end cables.”
Another goal is to give back to their community. Rijnveld told me about plans to organize an event in the late fall with Leerorkest—“Learning Orchestra” in English. Leerorkest is an Amsterdam-based foundation that provides donated musical instruments and free music lessons for underprivileged children ages 6–16. The Learning Orchestra Foundation has implemented the program in more than 30 schools in the Netherlands. Details of the event are still being worked out, but she expects members of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra to participate and perform—as will Gabi. The Rijnvelds hope to record the performance and speak with the children about what music means to them. “We’re celebrating 20 years, but we also want to give back,” she said.