Hana SL MK II Moving Coil Cartridge, Low Output

2-Year Manufacturer’s Limited Warranty

Winner, Analog Cartridge Award 2026 - hi-fi+ Magazine

"This is a very coherent cartridge, with excellent soundstaging and a Project Manager-level knack for organization, plus standout midrange insight. Its balance of warmth, good sense of rhythm and flow, and dynamic power puts is at the head of its sub-£1,000 class."

- hi-fi+ magazine, December 2025

Budget Product of the Year 2025 – Stereophile

"Herb Reichert's experience with 80% nickel transformers suggests that adding nickel to iron intensifies its response to magnetic fields, thereby increasing its responsiveness to small-signal stimulations. In audio systems, 'alnico makes tones appear denser and more saturated tone-color–wise. More noticeably, it adds vitality and polish,' he wrote."

- Stereophile, November 2025

Golden Ear Award - The Absolute Sound Magazine

"The Hana SL MK II is a cartridge with admirable harmonic richness, very good transparency to the recorded music, and excellent soundstage depth when the music contains such information. Extended listening over the evaluation period completely solidified these initial observations."

"This cartridge isn’t one of those so-called 'genre-specific' items; it plays well with all types of music. The cartridge is closer to being chameleon-like and outputs what the LP presents with all the ease, liveliness, vigor, elegance, and emotional moods captured during the recording session. The Hana SL MK II does music justice and is a worthy successor to the original Hana SL."

- The Absolute Sound, November 4, 2025

Recommended Component 2025 – Stereophile

"HR [Herb Reichert] found that Hana's original SL was an easy-flowing cartridge with a natural demeanor that did not sacrifice focus or musical form when presenting complex recordings, but boogie slam and jump factor were not its strong points. The SL MK II's heavier body, lower impedance coils, and tapered-tube cantilever addressed these deficiencies. The MK II sounded noticeably speedier, clearer, harder hitting, and more alpha than the original SL, concluded HR."

- Stereophile, March 24, 2025

Editors' Choice Award 2024 – The Absolute Sound Magazine

"In a sea of $10,000-ish super cartridges, what’s a vinyl-playing audiophile with discriminating tastes to do? For that matter, what’s a sub-$999 budgeted audiophile to do? The $600 Hana SL is the gem of the Excel lineup and can easily fit any ’table/’arm combo that will accommodate a 0.5mV output. With the Hana SL, the user can also rest assured the cartridge will support the next ’table/’arm upgrade. It represents what any more costly cartridge should offer as a bare minimum—and plenty more."

- The Absolute Sound magazine, December 2024

Five Hearts - Hi-Fi Pig Magazine

"The dynamic and yet relatively refined nature of this cartridge make it a delight to listen to. On genres that demand it, the SL MKII has enough refinement to make it a class act, but on the likes of techno it manages to get across a good degree of the grit and distortion this genre has, but without sounding brash or uncouth."

"Great sound-staging and imaging."

"A cartridge for those who just want to get on with listening to their music without over-obsessing about everything."

- Stuart Smith, Hi-Fi Pig Magazine, February 19 2025

"A new overachiever overachieves more!"

"The Hana SL MK II becomes the new low-cost overachiever, outdoing nearly everything the cartridge it replaces did so well."

"The SL MK II captured the complex harmonics from multiple strings with such ease and flow that I ended up listening to the entire 3-LP set."

- Andre Jennings, The Absolute Sound magazine, April 2025

"The original Hana SL cartridge is a versatile performer that tracks music well and effectively conveys it. It’s a popular choice at its price point. How does it compare to the new SL MK II? The difference is stark. In every aspect, the Hana SL MK II outperforms the original SL, offering a larger soundstage, better macro and micro dynamics, more openness on the top end, retrieval of more information, and better separation of instruments. In my listening notes, I equated the difference in sound quality was similar to the difference between using worn-out tubes and installing new ones. The MK II outshone the MK I from the first track."

"The new Hana SL MK II is a quantum leap in performance in every aspect of sound. This is a no-brainer recommendation for your consideration in this price range."

- Ken Redmond, trackingangle.com, September 26, 2024

"All things being equal, the Hana is the perfect candidate for anyone with a mid to upper mid level turntable and arm combination who is on the hunt for a value-for-money moving coil cartridge."

"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."

- Peter Famiiari, stereonet.com, March 24, 2017

"The bottom end is very solid, controlled, and digs deep. The midrange is warm and has depth and the top end is smooth, accurate and open, and tracks extremely well. Sound stage is wide and precise. This is a wonderful cartridge that punches above its price."

- ehoove, audiokarma.org, September 6, 2020

"I am blown away by the Hana line of cartridges, especially the SL; if you're looking to spend $750 dollars for a cartridge that will treat your records well and let you hear what they really sound like, you'd be hard pressed to do better for the money."

- Tom Gibbs, positivefeedback.com, March 5, 2019

"I have only used the cartridge for a few hours so it is not yet run in, but I am already enjoying the sound very much. I was immediately struck by the extremely low surface noise, the rich tone, the clarity of and space around vocals, and a well-rendered soundstage. I find it to have a somewhat effortless, driving, foot-tapping sound."

- DVinylFan, vinylengine.com, October 24, 2024

"The other reason that I am so excited about this new find is that it matches beautifully with the Audiomods arm. I'm here to tell you that for around £1000 it's possible to have a true, high-end combination of arm and cartridge. You could do better, but not a lot better and only with much greater outlay, and get it wrong and you could spend thousands and get nowhere close to the synergy of the Hana/Audiomods. That makes the Hana an absolute bargain in my book..."

- Geoff Husband, tnt-audio.com, June 2016

"I'm only about 20 hours in, but this cart is something special and is having the biggest impact on sound reproduction that I can recall in recent memory. It's soundstage both in depth and width is phenomenal and it truly does make the speakers disappear on most LPs. Sound comes from behind, to the side and above on many LPs and it is as if I have a wall of speakers."

- Mike from NYC, forums.stevehoffman.tv, September 17, 2017