Hana Umami Red Moving Coil Phono Cartridge

Description

Trade-in your old cartridge and save! Working or not working!
 

*Umami. /uːˈmɑːmi/ noun. The fifth taste category after salty, sweet, sour, and bitter. Officially coined Umami in 1908 by Japanese chemist Kikune Ikeda-
 

The HANA-Umami Way -

The HANA-Umami Red high-end moving coil cartridge combines brilliant materials and classic Japanese techniques with modern audio engineering. Ebony wood, rare-earth magnets, precision-cut diamond, high-purity copper wires, Urushi lacquering, and CNC machined Duralumin synergize under the vision of Hana designer Okada-san.

The synergistic relationship in MC generators between magnet, armature, and coil windings is a critical aspect of outstanding cartridge design; and like a signature dish at a Michelin 3-star restaurant, every element and detail working in concert results in a memorable and emotional experience. All the major parts in a HANA-Umami Red are manufactured in house by Excel Sound with its rich history spanning over 50 years. Excel’s highly trained craftsmen skillfully hand assemble the HANA-Umami Red ensuring an intensely musical experience furthering the HANA “Brilliant and Gorgeous” sound quality.

Umami Sound - Wonderful Taste in Music

When you experience a special sense of taste in food, it’s Umami*. The specific ingredients meld together synergistically and harmoniously to become more than the sum of their parts. Many of the world’s most delicious and memorable food experiences possess Umami quality.

Hana’s cartridge designer Maseo Okada-san produces this quality for vinyl listening as he combines materials and techniques to create the musical richness and intensity you experience from his HANA-Umami Red hand-built MC cartridge.
 

The HANA-Umami Red cartridge follows in the Hana “Brilliant and Gorgeous” tradition of providing the listener with sublime enjoyment. The Hana E, S, and M Series moving coil cartridges have won accolades and critical acclaim from reviewers and customers worldwide for the highest achievement of sound quality in their respective price ranges. The HANA-Umami Red follows that tradition with a more enticing level of audio enjoyment and satisfaction.

The HANA-Umami Way -

The HANA-Umami Red high-end moving coil cartridge combines brilliant materials and classic Japanese techniques with modern audio engineering. Ebony wood, rare-earth magnets, precision-cut diamond, high-purity copper wires, Urushi lacquering, and CNC machined Duralumin synergize under the vision of Hana designer Okada-san. The synergistic relationship in MC generators between magnet, armature, and coil windings is a critical aspect of outstanding cartridge design; and like a signature dish at a Michelin 3-star restaurant, every element and detail working in concert results in a memorable and emotional experience.

All the major parts in a HANA-Umami Red are manufactured in house by Excel Sound with its rich history spanning over 50 years. Excel’s highly trained craftsmen skillfully hand assemble the HANA-Umami Red ensuring an intensely musical experience furthering the HANA “Brilliant and Gorgeous” sound quality.

Auricle™ Cartridge body -

The HANA-Umami Red exclusive Auricle™ body design mimics the shape of the human outer ear to rigidly support the “Open Air” Moving Coil generator. The unique body shape is machined from A7075 aluminum, one of the strongest and lightest alloys used in aerospace engineering. The Duralumin body features an Ebony Wood inlay on its front facia to provide specific damping properties and tapped mounting holes to assure secure attachment to the tonearm.

Urushi Lacquer -

The HANA-Umami Red body’s multi-layered Urushi lacquer finish originates from the famous Japanese Makie-artistic tradition, adding to the rich sound and optics. This classic and complex procedure consists of a black Urushi painted undercoat, elaborate red-coloration process incorporating fine silver powder, “HANA” name printing with pure gold powder, and final lacquer coating with multiple polishing steps.

Microline stylus -

The HANA-Umami Red ‘nude’ natural diamond stylus is cut and polished to mimic the cutting head stylus used to Master or “cut” all vinyl records. This design offers the most precise fit into the vinyl groove, tracing the most delicate musical nuances.

Boron cantilever -

Boron, with a hardness comparable to diamond, was selected for the HANA Umami Red to rigidly hold the Microline stylus. This solid Boron cantilever allows the smallest audible details and micro-dynamics to be transmitted without loss to the moving coil generator, capturing the artists’ intent.

Moving coil generator -

The rare earth samarium/cobalt magnet material selected for the HANA Umami Red generator offers the best electro-magnetic energy, a requirement for this very musical design. Pure copper wires are expertly hand-wound onto the classic square plate Permalloy armature.

Cryogenic processing -

This ‘cold annealing’ process at near absolute zero temperature is used to treat many of the components in the HANA-Umami Red generator as well as the gold-plated signal output pins. The cryogenic process alters the molecular structure of the materials, producing a transformative quality similar to molecular gastronomy.

Wonderfully Musical -

The Hana team is proud of their seamless integration of brilliant materials, modern audio engineering, and traditional techniques. Master designer Okada-san brings decades of experience to this design, applying the Umami concept of synergy with the HANA-Umami Red to indulge your senses in the music.

REVIEWS:

      Audiophilia: "The Umami Red is not just the most engaging cartridge I’ve had in my system, but it’s one of the most engaging cartridges I’ve ever heard..."
"...the Umami Red represents one of the smartest “steps up” to the high end you can make in my opinion."- Michael Johnson, Audiophilia.com
 

The Absolute Sound: Hana Umami, Product of the Year (Cartridge) 2021

The Absolute Sound: - "The Umami Red is deliciously enjoyable. Color me impressed." - Andre Jennings

Hi-Fi News: "This cartridge slips neatly into the high-end pick-up scene, striking an excellent balance between the rose-tinted lushness of some 'traditional' MCs and the cooler analysis of high-tech groove diggers, blending the depth and detail of the latter with a touch more warmth. Moreover, it succeeds in eliciting crisp detail without the slight hardness that can beset the performance of brighter, typically more brittle-sounding pick-ups. Heck, it even has the feisty joie de vivre of the good old Denon DL-103, whose recommended tracking force of 2.5-2.8g some mistakenly fear will lead to premature record wear.

"In fact, the Hana Umami Red is not only a jack of all trades, it's a master of most of them. It has an unerring ability to cut through to the heart of a recording and find the very best lurking within. Aided by an ability to track securely, the result is clarity, detail and depth, plus – above all – the boogie factor in spades.

"Spin 'Summer Girl' from Haim's Women In Music Pt III [Polydor 0250813817], and the Umami Red captures the thump of the drums with aplomb, punching them out with authority. Danielle Haim's vocal is positioned beautifully centre-stage and projected superbly into the room, really putting the listener at the heart of the action. Then comes the saxophone solo at the end, which arrives blessed with just the right amount of rasp to sound realistic.

"So far so good, then, but the real surprise is in the way the Umami Red can dig out the bass line from deep down within a track. In this instance, the repeated sliding notes from the upright bass came through with impressive weight, but the aspect that tickled me most was the delicious squeak caused by Este Haim's hand every time she lifted it off the strings. It's this style of delivery that reminds us how some pick-ups will forensically dissect the vinyl yet still lose sight of the overall musical message along the way. Not the Umami Red. It is able to lay an entire mix bare while never forgetting that its purpose is to convey all the joy of the music at hand."

Food For Thought

"What's more, it achieves all this with a pleasing ability to fill the soundstage between the loudspeakers with precision. Its sense of front-to-back perspective is arguably as good as it gets at the price, and ensures vinyl is a true 3D experience.

"When it comes to the low end, the Umami Red digs deeply and with confidence. Bass lines are picked up on, brought to the fore and presented with a flourish. Now, that said, there are still times when this cartridge can be a little over-zealous when it comes to the really low stuff, particularly with electronic music. Allward's 'Slowburst' from Cromatophore's Volume 1 EP [Chromatophore CHR 001] boasts some deliciously deep synthesiser action and, while the Umami Red never sounded out of its depth, my regular Clearaudio MC Essence [HFN Aug '17] was just a little bit tighter and more controlled in this area.

"However, what was in no doubt was the precision and clarity the Umami Red imparted on the rest of the track. Those deep bass notes are overlaid with some seriously manic electronic percussion and this cartridge gripped hold of them with impressive tenacity. Aided by a good level of air and a pleasing lightness of touch at the top end, the Umami Red was as crisp and open as I could have wished for, but without any artificial sense of upper treble boost."

Rip-Roaring Stuff

"One result of this presentation was that during my time with the Umami Red I found myself drawn to recordings featuring more natural instruments. The unwavering level of detail it offers just seemed to suit acoustic music perfectly. Now, don't get me wrong, this pick-up can rock out with the best of them, as proven by a blast of 'Motorcycle Emptiness', a 12in single by The Manic Street Preachers [Columbia 658083 6]. This track thunders along, driven by a solid bass line and some punchy drum work. The slight break in singer James Dean Bradfield's voice was spot on, and the electric guitar had just the right amount of edge to it during the solo. All rip-roaring stuff.

"Yet it is with acoustic material that the cartridge really comes into its own. 'Tarantella' from Antonio Forcione's Touch Wood LP [Naim Records LP 097] was a delight, the interplay of acoustic guitars and cello a masterclass in how the textures of instruments and their positioning should be conveyed.

"And one thing I kept coming back to on a wide variety of tracks that featured an acoustic guitar was the way in which, when the instrument was strummed, the Umami Red managed to capture each string's individual note, no matter how quickly the pick passed over it. I've heard very few cartridges manage this level of insight before, and it never loses its appeal."

Hi-Fi News Verdict

"The Hana Umami Red has an ease and effortlessness to the way it approaches music-making that deserves to be heard. It is beautifully detailed and can be particularly enthralling when it comes to acoustic fare, which only serves to make it all the more compelling as a musical companion. And it will rock out too. Umami? Most definitely. At times I was even tempted to describe it as Saiko (stunning)."

Stereophile: "The recipe for Hana's new all-out Umami Red consists of a nude Microline diamond mounted on a boron cantilever with its high-purity copper coils wrapped on a square permalloy armature centered in the flux-field of an iron pole piece and a samarium cobalt magnet. This magnetic circuit is attached to the "ear-shaped" section of the gloss-red Urushi-lacquered Duralumin A7075 alloy body that features an ebony wood inlay. The cartridge weighs 10.5gm, and its coil impedance is 6 ohms/1kHz with an output of 0.4mV. Recommended load impedance is >60 ohms, and suggested VTF is 2gm. Dynamic compliance is specified as 10 × 10-6cm/dyne at 100Hz.

Listening: "The first thing I noticed with the Hana Umami Red feeding the Parasound Halo JC 3+ (at 80 ohms loading, Garth Leerer's recommendation) was the intensity with which it brought Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter) to life in his humanity-flexing June 1949 performance at the University of Texas, Austin (1973 LP, Playboy Records PB 119). I can only describe this intensity as a wide-angle, nonrefractive clarity that made me constantly aware of the auditorium space, the feel of the audience, and, most of all, Huddie performing with his whole heart and full battery of talents just six months before his death.

"The Umami revealed Lead Belly, with microphones on his voice and guitar, facing the audience with a crisp, almost-really-there presence. The sound was so vivid, I imagined I saw musicologist-recordist Alan Lomax standing See below the stage with his Ampex. Vocal intelligibility was markedly better than with the Zu Denon DL-103 Mk.2, the Ortofon 2M Black, or the $1200 Hana ML. Through the Parasound JC 3+, the Umami MC generated a clean window with a deep, quiet view into the recording, which, amazingly, sounded like analog tape.

"It is important that you fully understand the meaning of my last sentence. When a phonographic cartridge makes a pure-analog LP sound "like analog tape," it must be recovering enough low-level information to trigger that recognition in the listener. There is no higher compliment than to say a phono cartridge makes an LP sound like what its master source is made from.

"I would compare the most typical differences between the sound of one audio component and another to sharpness and contrast in photography. On this Lead Belly record, the Umami Red displayed sharper, more precisely focused images than the much less expensive Hana ML. More surprisingly, the Umami's natural-feeling contrast levels, grain-free clarity, and lifelike solidity reminded me a lot of what I experience with My Sonic Lab's Ultra Eminent Ex ($6995), which also uses a lacquered Duralumin A7075 alloy body, a line-contact stylus, and a boron cantilever. Both cartridges have a similar weight, output, and compliance. And both make pure analog LPs sound like master tapes." - Herb Reichert

HiFi+: "The Umami Red is that rare jewel in phono cartridges; a design that gives you both the sort of detail and precision of sound that presents whatever music you put on the platter with a laser-guided focus on the recording itself, and musical grace and passion. That makes for some interesting listening sessions, both in terms of ‘depth’ and ‘width’… not just of soundstage, but music collection. Here’s what I mean; Lana Del Rey’s title track to Norman F***ing Rockwell![Interscope] is such a thing of beauty you might only play that one track in a test listening session, but the Hana and I were in it for the long haul. At each stage, the cartridge tracked sublimely, opened up the recording with detail, scale, imagery, and dynamics, but more importantly got past those observational details and engaged you to the point where a musical snack turned into a full-blown banquet. The Umami Red has a great tonal balance too, perfectly pitched between bright and bland. It’s sophisticated presentation will take time to beguile, but when it does, it will really get under your skin.

"The Hana ML and MH gets you glimpses of what a really good cartridge can do. 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!" - Alan Sircom

   The Absolute Sound: "The Umami Red is the best-sounding cartridge to come from the Excel factory, and I've heard a number of them...the Umami Red provides deliciously enjoyable class-leading performance compared with cartridges in the same price range." Andre Jennings, TAS | 2021 Golden Ear  Awards
Full review here

SPECIFICATIONS:

Body: Duralumin
Finish: Gloss Urushi Lacquer / Red
Cantilever: Solid Boron
Stylus: Microline Nude Diamond
Armature Material: Permalloy
Parts Material: Pure Iron
Magnet: Samarium Cobalt
Output Pins: 24K Gold Plated
Output Voltage: 0.4mV
Output Impedance: 6 Ohms
Recommended Load: > 60 Ohms
Frequency Response: 15 - 50,000Hz
Output Balance: 0.5dB @ 1kHz
Channel Separation: 30dB @ 1kHz
Trackability: 70μm/2g
Dynamic Compliance: 10 x 10(-6) cm/dyne (100Hz) Estimated at 17 x 10(-6)cm/dyne at 10Hz
Weight: 10.5g