Головки звукоснимателя — HANA MH

The MH is an MC pickup sold under the HANA name, a range produced by Excel Sound of Japan and developed under designer Masao Okada. It belongs to the M Series and is the high-output version, listed at USD 1,200 in the US, so it plugs into an ordinary moving-magnet phono input and does not require an SUT or a head amp.

Key specs that matter

Output is 2 mV at 1 kHz, with channel balance held within 1 dB. The stylus is a nude Microline diamond carried on an aluminium cantilever. Frequency response runs from 12 Hz to 45,000 Hz, and channel separation is 30 dB at 1 kHz. Coil impedance is 130 ohm at 1 kHz, while HANA suggests loading it at the usual 47 kohm of an MM input. Compliance is 10 x 10-6 cm/dyne, the recommended vertical tracking force is 2 g, and trackability at that force reaches 70 micrometres. The cartridge weighs 9.5 g and has a black body.

Engineering and use context

Excel Sound fits an Alnico magnet, and the magnetic circuit uses pure iron parts that have been cryogenically treated. High-purity copper is used for the coil windings, and the body colour is the same black across both M Series versions. The housing combines POM, also known as Delrin, with brass, a pairing of a stiff polymer shell and a dense metal. A Microline tip has a profile close to that of the cutting stylus used to make a lacquer master, so it sits deeper and more precisely in the groove walls than an elliptical tip, which is the reason HANA gives for choosing it across the M Series. Because the tip is nude, the diamond is bonded straight to the cantilever without a metal shank, keeping moving mass low. The combination of a moderate compliance figure and the body mass puts the MH in the range of many medium-mass tonearms found on current turntables. Setting the tracking force on a scale and aligning the Microline tip with care is needed to get the stated trackability.

Pairing

An MM phono input of any kind will do, such as the phono section of an integrated amplifier or receiver, and the standard MM load means no loading plugs are needed. Owners who later move to a dedicated MC stage can still use the MH there, but the point of the design is to avoid that extra cost. A tonearm with an effective mass in the medium range suits the stated compliance and body weight.

Alternatives

The HANA ML is the low-output moving-coil sibling in the same M Series, aimed at dedicated MC phono inputs.