Hana Umami Black MC cartridge

The HANA-Umami Black continues the brand's heritage and offers all of its technological expertise to deliver unrivalled performance and musicality.
The Hana Umani Black was designed by Excel Sound's “master”, Masao Okada-san. He is renowned for more than five decades of innovation and excellence within the Japanese brand.

Hana Umani Black: Cantilever and stylus

The Umami Black features a cantilever made from a single piece of diamond. This material is the hardest that can be used for a cantilever. It is expensive and complicated to produce, but ideal for signal transfer.
This is a first for HANA, but this technology has already been used by Ortofon for several years (Ortofon MC Diamond).

Hana Umani Black: Generator

The Umani Black incorporates a generator consisting of a high-efficiency “OKD” moving coil. This unique process integrates the first pole piece and rear yoke into a single piece.  The front yoke is inverted U-shaped, optimising energy transfer from the diamond cantilever. It allows for better control of mechanical resonance and magnetic field alignment, while providing precise support for the diamond cantilever.

The Umami Black features rare earth neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets. This results in a high-efficiency generator that offers superior energy conversion compared to standard magnets or ferrite.
The 2 mm square carbon/permalloy ‘hybrid’ armature is composed of 78% carbon-infused nickel-iron. It is precision hand-wound with high-purity 4N copper wire measuring 30 microns. This requires tools and machines exclusive to Excel Sound. The result is an ultra-lightweight moving coil with a relatively high output level compared to its mass. 

Hana Umani Black: Body 

The Umani Black features a special Urushi enamel finish. This refined Urushi lacquer finish is achieved through a specific thermosetting process that bonds to the aluminium body through vapour deposition.
This finish is not only beautiful, but also offers excellent rigidity and low resonance.

Hana Umani Black: compatibility

The Hana Humani Black is a very high-end low-level MC cartridge. It will, of course, need to be paired with an excellent medium-mass tonearm.
The phono preamplifier should also be of the same standard and offer a fairly low input impedance (50 ohms). A step-up transformer is an interesting solution with this MC cartridge. The phono preamplifier should offer a minimum gain of 64 dB (0.3 mV).