Головки звукоснимателя — HANA EH MK II

The EH MK II is a high-output moving coil cartridge from Hana, built for turntable owners whose amplifier or phono preamplifier has no dedicated MC input. It connects to an ordinary moving magnet stage and needs neither a step-up transformer nor a separate MC gain setting. Hana sets the US retail price at USD 550 and covers the cartridge with a 2-year warranty. Its body comes in a moss green colour.

Key specs that matter

Output is 2 mV at 1 kHz, a level close to many moving magnet designs, while the coil impedance measures 130 ohm. Hana suggests a load impedance of 47 kOhm or higher, which is the standard setting of MM phono inputs. The stylus is a synthetic elliptical tip mounted on an aluminium cantilever, and the generator uses an Alnico magnet. The quoted frequency response runs from 15 Hz to 25,000 Hz. Channel separation is 25 dB at 1 kHz, and the difference in output between the two channels stays below 1.5 dB at the same frequency. The recommended vertical tracking force is 2 g, and trackability is listed as 70 microns at that force. The cartridge weighs 8.6 g.

Engineering and use context

The top of the body is a brass cap, which Hana uses to control vibration inside the cartridge. The mounting holes are threaded, so the cartridge bolts to the headshell with screws alone and no loose nuts have to be held in place during installation. The body also carries an elastomeric coating intended to manage resonance. Critical generator parts and the output pins go through cryogenic treatment, a step the maker applies to improve conductivity of the signal path. Because the output sits in the MM range, the cartridge can be swapped into a system that previously ran a moving magnet model without changing phono stage settings, which suits owners who want to try a moving coil generator in an existing setup.

Pairing

The natural partner is any phono stage with a standard MM input, from a basic built-in phono section in an integrated amplifier to a separate MM preamplifier. A dedicated MC input with low loading is not required and not intended for this model. Anyone who owns an MC step-up device or head amp can remove it from the signal chain when installing this model, since the cartridge was designed around direct connection to MM gain.

Alternatives

The Hana EL MK II shares the construction but has low output for owners whose phono stage has a proper MC input.