Головки звукоснимателя — HANA Umami Red

The Umami Red is an MC cartridge with low output, made in Japan by Excel Sound and sold under its HANA name. It sits in the Umami family below the Umami Black and is recognisable by its red gloss finish with an inlay of ebony. The US list price is USD 3,950, with UK and eurozone prices of GBP 3,399 and EUR 3,700, and the cartridge carries a 2-year warranty.

Key specs that matter

A nude natural-diamond Microline stylus is mounted on a solid boron cantilever. Output is 0.4 mV at 1 kHz, with channel balance within 0.5 dB, and coil impedance is 6 ohm. HANA suggests a load above 60 ohm. The frequency range is 10 Hz to 50,000 Hz, channel separation is 30 dB at 1 kHz, and trackability reaches 70 micrometres at the recommended 2 g tracking force. The cartridge weighs 10.5 g. This output exceeds the Umami Black figure a little, so a little less gain is needed than for the top model.

Engineering and use context

HANA selected boron for the cantilever because its hardness approaches that of diamond, which lets it hold the Microline tip rigidly and pass small groove movements to the generator with little loss. The body is machined from A7075 duralumin, an aluminium alloy containing zinc, magnesium and copper, and it follows the ear-shaped Auricle form that HANA uses for extra stiffness. Several coats of gloss Urushi lacquer cover the metal, and an ebony section is set into it. The generator uses a samarium cobalt magnet, a pure iron magnetic core and a square armature plate of iron-based permalloy. Some magnetic parts are cryogenically treated, and the coils are wound with high-purity copper. Signal leaves through a terminal block made of PEEK, a rigid engineering polymer, fitted with pins plated in 24-carat gold. The cartridge ships in a wooden box together with a wooden-handled cleaning brush and mounting bolts.

Pairing

With its low output, the Umami Red requires an MC preamplifier offering high gain, or a step-up device between cartridge and an MM input. The low-impedance coil is simple to load at the suggested value on most MC stages. A tonearm that can set the tracking force precisely and carry its weight suits it, and careful alignment of the Microline stylus is needed to reach the stated tracking figure. The Microline profile follows the shape of a record-cutting stylus, which is why exact overhang and azimuth matter more than with a simple elliptical tip.

Alternatives

The HANA Umami Black is the higher model in the same family, with a solid diamond cantilever and 0.3 mV output.