Головки звукоснимателя — HANA Umami Black

The Umami Black is the top cartridge in the HANA range from Excel Sound of Japan, an MC design with very low output. It was designed by Masao Okada, who has worked on cartridges at Excel Sound for more than five decades, and it introduced several first-time features for the brand. The US list price is USD 11,500.

Key specs that matter

The key change is a solid diamond cantilever, carrying a nude Microline stylus with a 2.5 by 70 micrometre profile. Output is 0.3 mV from a source impedance of 5 ohm. HANA recommends a load of at least 50 ohm and a vertical tracking force of 2 g. The coils are hand-wound with 30 turns of 30-micrometre 4N copper wire, 99.99 % pure. The cartridge weighs 11.3 g, noticeably more than the 10.5 g Umami Red, so arm counterweight range should be checked. Its body is machined from A7075 duralumin in an open-air shape HANA calls the Umami Auricle, and it is coated in black Urushi lacquer.

Engineering and use context

The Umami Black is the first HANA to use the OKD generator, named after its designer. In that layout the pole piece and rear yoke are made as one integrated part, and the front yoke has an inverted U shape that HANA says controls resonance and keeps the field lines aligned in the gap. The magnet is a rare-earth neodymium-iron-boron type of N40 grade. The armature is a 2 mm square of hybrid carbon permalloy, a nickel-iron alloy infused with carbon. HANA picked diamond as it is the hardest material available for passing stylus motion to the generator. The Urushi finish is applied by a thermosetting process with vapour deposition bonding, giving a hard coat that also adds mechanical damping on the metal body. The open-air chassis leaves the generator exposed from the sides instead of boxed in, which keeps the body light while its alloy frame stays stiff.

Pairing

Given its very low output, the Umami Black needs an MC preamp offering generous gain or an SUT feeding an MM stage. Because the internal impedance is low, the recommended loading is easy to provide on most MC stages. Stepping up from lower HANA models means the phono stage gain has to rise as well. A tonearm able to set the tracking force accurately and hold this heavier body is required, and precise alignment of the Microline tip matters.

Alternatives

The HANA Umami Red is the lower-priced moving-coil model in the Umami family, using a boron cantilever and a duralumin body with ebony inlay.