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Recommended Component 2025 – Stereophile
Phono Cartridge of the Year Award Winner 2021 – The Absolute Sound
A Delicious and Memorable MC Phono Cartridge
When you experience a special sense of taste in food, it could be what the Japanese call 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 the 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.
"Recommended Component" Honors
Stereophile honored the Hana Umami Red by awarding it the magazine's coveted Recommend Component status for 2025.
According to Stereophile, "Loaded with 80 ohms, this low-output moving coil impressed HR with the intensity with which it endowed familiar recordings, as well as the enhanced intelligibility of vocals, 'natural-feeling contrast levels, grain-free clarity, and lifelike solidity.' The Umami Red displayed sharper, more precisely focused images than the much less expensive Hana ML, he decided."
"Phono Cartridge of the Year"
"From a sound perspective, this cartridge has exceptional overall balance, such that it allows the musical timbre of instruments and vocals to present themselves truthfully no matter what genre of music is being reproduced," reported the January 2022 issue of The Absolute Sound magazine, which named the Umami red as its Phono Cartridge of the Year for 2021. "Couple these attributes with excellent micro/macro-dynamics, the ability to easily unravel harmonic complexities, an ever-so-tight tilt towards overall warmth, and buttery smooth yet extended high frequencies, and you have a superb combination."
"The Hana Umami Red is the best-sounding cartridge review (and analog maven) Andre Jennings has experienced from the Excel factory, and he's heard a number of them, including some posh OEM models."
"Truly Top-Tier LP Replay!"
"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!" raves Alan Sircom, Hi-Fi+, May 25, 2021.
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.
"Highly Recommended"
"I’ll say it clearly – if you are looking for cartridges in this price range and you don’t check out the Umami, you’ll always wonder if you made the right decision. I’m glad I made the decision to grab this cartridge from Mo and experience it for myself. Highly recommended," observes Marc Phillips, Part-Time Audiophile, September 3, 2021.
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 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 Okadasan 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.
All Major Parts Manufactured In-House
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.
"The Most Engaging Cartridge I’ve Had in My System"
"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, and that includes time spent with very high-end systems and cartridges double its price," raves Michael Johnson, audiophilia.com, December 22, 2023.
"For listeners like me who have hung out in the 1-2k range of moving coil carts for many years, the Umami Red represents one of the smartest 'steps up' to the high end you can make in my opinion."
"85% of the Performance of a $21,000 Cartridge"
"Globally speaking, this is a simply superb cartridge, one that consistently performs well above other entrants in its price class," observes Greg Weaver, Positive Feedback, September 13, 2023.
"I rarely choose to make such comparisons, but this cartridge is so impressive, and in so many respects, that I'm willing to suggest that it offers eighty, maybe even eighty-five percent, of the magical performance I routinely experience from the world-class, $21,000 Etsuro Gold. But hey, that really shouldn't be so surprising when you consider the strong familial relationship. After all, they are designed and constructed by the same artisans, using many of the same principles, techniques, and components."
"It Performs with Power and Grace"
"The Umami Red is one smooth customer, but don’t let that fool you. It delivers when it needs to resolve low-level detail, and dynamics. It performs with power and grace," suggests Ken Redmond, theaudiobeatnik.com, September 22, 2020.
"This cartridge connects you emotionally to the music. It can negotiate virtually anything you throw at it and never get flustered. Its balanced sound always seems to reveal a new interpretation of music that you are familiar with. You will find yourself just wanting to pull out albums and have a listen."
