The Hana Umami Blue Moving Coil Cartridge Review
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- Опубликовано: 30 июн 2023
- Tom Martin reviews the Hana Umami Blue Moving Coil Cartridge, including set-up, pricing, and compares it to the Hana ML and DS003 cartridges...
Prices of cartridges referenced in this review:
Hana EL: $475
Hana SL: $750
Hana ML: $1200
Hana Umami Blue: $2500
DS 003 optical cartridge: $2500
DS-specific 003 phono pre-preamp:$3500
Hana Umami Red: $3950
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Thank you for bringing a level of professionalism to our hobby that is so welcome. Actual help for new to serious listeners.
“Analogue yumminess.” I know some people are loosing their minds over this, but I think it’s accurate. LOL. I love it.
Tom & @theabsolutesound: I absolutely love your reviews, Tom. For whatever reason, the production value really sits well with me: it's professional and polished, without being over-produced and empty. I also really like your presentation to the camera - it's relaxed (but not *too* informal) and strikes the right tone. As for content, I feel like you hit the important points, all while taking the time to give context and just enough personality to keeo me at ease and engaged.
While I'm here, let me say that I am a very big fan of your new, improved "new media" presence. Kudos to you on stepping up your game and expanding beyond print-only in a way that is both consistent with the brand that you have already established and also expands it into new spaces and forms. Needless to say, this gives you a leg up on many of your competitors who have failed to embrace the changing media landscape!
Well, geez, you are too kind. But thanks!
Great review
Ty
Good video. My budget doesn't go to the level of the Hana Blue or Red, but I have owned two Hana SL which I totally love. The first one is off for re tipping. This company really are great value for what you get.
Really like the Blue. The next one up is on my radar. Would like to hear your review on it.
Mini mini years ago it was an excellent Mat and screw down record clamp made of methacrylate by Goldmund. Both of these pieces have served me very well since around 1990.
Nice review Tom. I’ve had my Umami Blue for less than two weeks as it replaces a Dynavector 20x2L. My tube rectified phono preamp/equalizer is a Sun Valley SV-EQ1616D (reviewed by Herb R.) available as a kit or assembled from Japan with a Bob’s Devices Sky 40 SUT. The cart is on a VPI Scout 1.1 TT. My integrated amp is a Willsenton R8 push/pull tube feeding my 1984 KEF 104/2 speakers. I have 15-20 hours on the Hana Blue and it sounds Yummy as you described.
So your cartridge is the most expensive item in your audio chain? That's a weird way to prioritize budgeting
@@meesmo4 - I was going to buy the Hana ML but got a great deal on the Umami Blue cart that I could not pass up. I intend to move up the food chain buying a new 300B SET amp and expensive tubes. Wish me luck.
@@VintageLuxmanStereoCollectorDon’t go for a Willsenton 300B amp.. Get a Sun Valley one, and one of their preamps..
@@rickg8015- my thoughts exactly. Sun Valley👍👍
I, too, have moved to a similar turntable, BUT....... 20 years ago we would have been persecuted severely for using a direct drive DJ turntable (speed slider), with an S shaped tonearm, and detachable headshell ; ) In fact, you would never have even thought of making this video. Every time I used to drop my albums down onto the moving belt drive platters, I would cringe, knowing it was damaging my albums. Now, my table starts and stops on a dime, and that is a godsend.
One of my very good experiences in the past was with the Fidelity Research MC1..........the singer was in my room with body and soul..( with Cotter MK2 L step up )
I never realized how much "gain" has to do with audio quality till I got a decent "pre-amp"! As good as your cartridge is, you need that nice high , clean gain!
I hope you could review the Audiomods Series 6 (in black) and/or The Wand’s latest arm that would fit that Technics..
Very nice review, thank you ....listening to the same piece of music and be able to focus every listening session on another instrument or player is realy a sign of a very good cartridge but also revealing with outstanding musical amplifiers and other components !
Measuirments of performance are one thing but finaly it is ......the magic of the musical experience when listening is what realy counts for me .
The pricetag is what is way out of reach for me as a being on a retired budget.
Sonically, how do these moving coil cartridges (Hana ML, the Hana Umami Blue,) compare to the Ortofon 2m Black moving magnet? I purchased a Bryston BLP-1 turntable that my local dealer in Austin mounted a 2m Black onto. It sounds fantastic and has completely revised my opinion of what moving magnet cartridges are capable of in general.
I have an old Technics SL-1200mk2 that I bought new back in, maybe 1995? and I think I'll move the 2m Black onto a headshell and use it for listening in my home office. I'm playing around with a moving coil cart as a replacement.
I’ll see if I can get one (or similar) for review. I believe the assumption that MM cartridges are inferior to MC is based on the relative mass of the moving elements. But it would be good to see if the theory holds up in SQ.
@@thomasmartin2219 That makes sense. I haven’t heard the 250th Anniversary LVB edition of the 2m Black, but when I need to get a replacement stylus for my 2m I’ll upgrade for sure.
I mentioned it in the first place because that quality of instrumental separation (I would call it being in focus rather than blurry/smeary) is and can only be from the frequency/phase accuracy of the total response curve.
Timbre, spatial/time smearing, all of it is dependent on that response curve arriving at the listening position within +/- 0.5 dB of the target at every point along the curve, low and high roll-off not withstanding.
I’ve done so in my system using Floyd Toole’s ideal curve for ‘professional listeners’ and I feel like the 2m black is also aiming for the same response.
One thing that might be present in the 2m black that higher end carts don’t have is (bloat?). It’s like the sound expands around the speaker like a huge sphere that scales with loudness. It’s not a point source anymore. I have only heard it with specific recordings, so I don’t know if that’s the nude/line-contact profile causing trouble with particular records or what.
Yeh, it is interesting to see that the same issue are still there and not addressed. Despite how much money, time and experience you put into setup tools and such.
If looking in the video we see the cartridge going up and down when it is tracking.
Yes, it is from the slightly warped record. And this is a more or less a "normal" warp.
Actually if look parallel from the side between the mat and the record and maybe a light background.
You will see that the record has no contact with the mat at the highest warped part! (Yeah how could it.. it is floating in the air.
So the interesting thing that it is not addressed at all (while there is several solutions) while in the same breath also talking about 5000-7000 USD cartridges and reference system.
So the question is when and at what price point it makes sense to address the normal record warp issues?
For example should the cartridge cost maybe 10000 USD ? for it is audible beneficial to get a outer ring clamp, record flattener or a air force one TT for example?
I just thinking that it has to make any difference otherwise if it doesn't then there is no reason that the air force one TT exist? And who don't want their records laying flat and with contact with the platter/mat across it's whole underside surface area and making a easier work for the cartridge to be able to extract the grove information better. Who don't want after putting hours into setup and money on setup tools. To just get the advanced stylus shape and it's angels against the groove is as correct as possible. And then put a wrapped record on the TT that over a entire revolution will alter the angels that those fine line contact points on the stylus has against the groove walls?
Seams that when we get into very fine and more precise setup that we are enabled to do with our tools.
That then it should be equal of importance to make sure that the grove that is passing under the stylus does not press the cartridge and its supension up and let the canteliver compress and we now have a totally different SRA at that point in time and vice versa when we go downhill the canteliver and the suspension decompress and yet another SRA and if we could measure dynamically VTF it will also change. As we know different VTA is dictating and is related to antiscating also.
And finally in the valley where the record has contact with the platter AND we did all the adjustments and calibration then the setup is closet to what we expected it to be.
So we could put the question like this also. When we care more and more and pour money into setup tools and get more fine accuracy in the setup. Where at what point it makes sense to make sure to use a flat record to ensure that the desired and worked setting will be used the whole revolution and not just approximately on "average" during a whole revolution on a warped LP ?😅
Man between you and Upscale Audio, I believe I’m going to have to buy one of these! 😂❤
I would be attaching the blue to a rega p8. Clearly a better deck and more musical.
Would you say that “ the wide paint brush stroke” vs the defined lines is because of the stylus or the build of the ML and umami blue?
Hard to know, but it feels like a bigger difference than just stylus shape. The focus of the ML is at the ensemble level, while the Umami Blue more clearly builds the ensemble from individual performers.
❤👍🏼
Nice Korf headshell
Thanks man, didn’t have to ask the reviewer..
I got it...with the Audiotechnica AT-LP5X and Kiseki Aurora.
Korf audio headshell is incredible !!...👍
Love DS Audio
Harry used to use the term image specificity instead of image separation. Not sure if you were around during those years.
Yes, I was a subscriber from Vol 1, Issue 1, though I wouldn’t claim to have HP’s skills. What I am trying to covey with image separation is the idea that there seems to be natural space around the performers. Valin, I believe, uses the term “spotlighting” for something similar. To my mind, image specificity connotes a sense of the precise location of performers in space, though I’d have to check HP’s early usage to be sure. Anyway, I hope that clarifies my meaning.
I think this type of product is for audio listeners who are well off. If you can afford it why not?
Comparing the Blue against another technology is very “apples and orange” comparison.
Not a bad video however, I think you need to address your warped records before you make any comparisons, and the puck you are using is obviously not doing it's job but just adding weight to your bearing. You do talk a lot about set up but you do not mention compliance. Compliance is the specification of the suspension system of the cartridge in relation to the compliance or mass of the tonearm. All the tools you mention to set up the cartridge mean nothing if the compliance is wrong. You also fail to mention that an arm with VTA is essential, and with some tapered arms, headshell packing may be needed, when using the DS Audio cartridges as their profile (height) is a lot smaller than conventional cartridges. Yes the DS 003 cartridge is similar in price but you must also buy the dedicated DS power supply/equaliser (which is not a phono stage) which puts the cost closer to 6k for the DS 003, so not a good comparison me thinks.
Your mic has a ton of sibilance.
Upgrade it.
It's your phone
Grown men saying yummy turns my stomach….
Haha... Me too
Wow, you found a $3500 cartridge of sounded good to you. You really are slumming these days absolute sound.
I absolutely love when they put some equipment behind them to attract public and then B.S. for 20-30min about how good the sound is w/o demo the sound itself.🤯
We would love to demo the sound, but it isn’t clear that a recording of a recording transmitted over RUclips’s compressed data channel would work. If you have ideas, we’re listening.
Lets not forget about the famed double blind test :) Come on guys. We're trusting this channel for it's decades of experience. You're going to have to take his word for it.
@@davewin1792 😂🤣😂