Cartridges — HANA Umami Red

The Umami Red is a distinctive moving-coil phono cartridge from HANA, built with a sophisticated boron cantilever and a distinctive duralumin-and-ebony-wood body. The Umami Red brings HANA's more accomplished current engineering to a serious, visually distinctive analogue playback front end.

Key specs that matter

The cartridge uses a moving-coil design with a Microline stylus profile mounted on a boron cantilever - a lightweight, rigid material favoured for minimising resonance. The body uses a distinctive duralumin (A7075) and ebony wood combination. Coil construction uses high-purity copper. Output voltage is 0.4mV at 5cm/sec. Frequency response spans an exceptionally wide 10Hz to 50,000Hz within plus-or-minus 3dB. Internal impedance exceeds a substantial 60 ohms. Weight is 10.5g.

Sound and use context

Expect an accurate, detailed tracking performance reflecting the sophisticated boron cantilever combined with the distinctive duralumin-and-ebony-wood body, offering a visually and sonically distinctive analogue front end.

Pairing

The 0.4mV output voltage requires a phono stage with substantial MC gain, matched to the substantial over-60-ohm internal impedance.

Alternatives

HANA's own Umami Black offers a more accomplished alternative with a diamond cantilever within the same broader cartridge catalogue.