Hana at Cloney Audio
Hana is a brand of the Excel Corporation of Japan which is also an OEM maker for a number of other prestigious cartridge brands. While many high end cartridges (especially those from SE Asia) are artisan products and priced to match, the economies of scale that Excel’s OEM business brings, allows it to offer Hana cartridges at exceptionally good value.
“Hana” means ‘brilliant and gorgeous’ in the Japanese language, revealing the inspiration for Hana cartridges. Hana cartridges are the result of over 50 years expertise from the master cartridge maker Masao Okada-san. The Hana cartridge ranges have been developed to offer supreme musicality combined with affordability.
Another key feature of the Hana range is the availability of high and low output versions of almost all of the range. Owners of “moving coil” compatible phono stages will almost certainly choose the low output versions. But many affordable amplifiers only include an “MM” input, and here, the high output Hana cartridges offer access to the benefits of moving coil technology, but with an output level which will work on a less sensitive “MM” input. High output will also be attractive to owners of many valve amplifiers since valve phono stages almost always require a high output cartridge.
Within the range itself, Hana offers a very logical performance ladder where one finds upgrades to the stylus profile, cantilever materials and body construction and one goes higher up the range.
Hana moving coil cartridges are offered in 4 price bands, the ‘E’,’S’,’M’ series and the newest ‘Umami’ series. The E,S and M series have both Low and High output options. The new Umami series is Hana’s assault on the state of the art in modern cartridge design.
For more info on Hana, visit hanacartridges.com or visit us for a demo!
E Series
The Hana E series cartridge has a synthetic Elliptical diamond stylus fitted to a high rigidity aluminium cantilever with cross-shaped armature, offering super transparency and excellent trackability. The body is manufactured from a composite low resonance plastic material in dark green.
Hi Fi Choice says: “The EH balances a rich, detailed, and refined presentation with impressive tonal accuracy….is emotionally engaging and has a sense of air and space that is unusual at the price.”
S Series
The Hana S moving coil cartridge has a nude natural diamond Shibata-stylus capable of excellent high frequency response. A high rigidity aluminium cantilever with cross-shaped armature offers supreme transparency and superb trackability. The body is manufactured from a composite low resonance plastic material in black.
Stereonet says: “With a performance close enough to challenge cartridges priced to $1500, the Hana SL punches well above its weight division and represents good value for money, and as such comes warmly recommended.”
M Series
The Hana M cartridge line has several advanced product features which substantially advance its sound quality. The ‘Micro-Line’ stylus design (shaped like the cutting head when the metal master LP is being produced), fits precisely into the vinyl groove to capture the very smallest details, offering better frequency reproduction and less distortion.
The Hana M Series cartridge bodies are made from black ‘Delrin’ a high performance engineering plastic - frequently used in high end turntable platters. There is a gold-plated copper resonance plate integral with the cartridge body that further reduces distortion from vibrations.
Very high-quality copper wire has been selected for MH/ML moving coils, offering greater clarity of sound, thanks to its lower distortion of the musical signal along with cryogenic treatment to further reduce distortion.
Hi-Fi World says: …. “Beyond wonderful …. I’ve never heard such a good sound as this before.”
Umami
The Hana Umami Red hand-built MC cartridge is a statement product from Hana’s Master cartridge designer Maseo Okada-san. The cryogenically treated MC generator features a samarium/cobalt magnet with a pure-iron square plate armature, hand-wound with high purity 30-micron copper wire for an internal impedance of 6Ω and 0.4mV output.
A Nude Microline stylus is bonded to a solid boron cantilever whose rigidity and lightness retrieves the most delicate musical nuances from the LP.
The HANA-Umami Red exclusive Auricle™ body design (with tapped mounting holes) mimics the shape of the human outer ear, to rigidly support the cryogenically treated “Open Air” Moving Coil generator. It is machined from a hard Duralumin with a multi-layered Urushi lacquer finish - an ultra hard lacquer derived from the sap of the urushi tree.
All the major parts of the HANA-Umami Red are manufactured in house by Excel Sound with its highly trained craftsmen skilfully hand assembling each cartridge.
Hi-Fi+ says: “The Umami Red gives you the complete picture. It represents the top end of Hana’s output, but goes toe-to-toe with some exceptionally rare cartridges with some very lofty reputations. And it sacrifices nothing. This is truly top-tier LP replay.”
