Hana SH vs ortafon 2m Black


Has anyone had experience with both of these cartridges? They will be going on a VPI Scout  run through a rogue cronus magnum  The Hana sounds good but needs quite bit of volume compared to the 2m red I had. Im wondering if the Black is as smooth as the hana without the harshness of the red. Thanks for your input.
garyagostini
What brand is your phono pre?

My phono pre is a somewhat obscure and hard to find MAGI Phonomenal . I think the new ones run about $1K or maybe a couple hundred north of that. I got mine used in 2014 for $1K. It’s an all tube handwired PTP unit that uses a quartet of 6DJ8 family tubes. I’ve swapped in 6922s and 7308s with various effects, but eventually settled on Soviet Military surplus 6N1Ps, the designer’s recommendation, which lowered the noise floor considerably.

I still think that upgrading your Rogue Cronus Magnum to a Magnum II would provide the extra gain you are looking for to flesh out that Hana.
It might be worth considering a step-up transformer for your Hana cart.  
Parks Audio makes one that is not too expensive and gets good reviews.  http://parksaudiollc.com/index.html#txt_162
SUTs are used with the MM setting on your phone preamp and will provide a nice boost to the MC signal.  If you read what Art Dudley has been writing about SUTs recently you might gain some useful info.  
Benefits beyond the extra gain you will get are lower noise and greater smoothness of the sound.  
"I don’t have experience with either cartridge, but — "

After acknowledging you don't know either cartridge, you offer a decisive opinion of both. How do you do that, it's a skill I'd like to learn...
"I don’t have experience with either cartridge, but — "

After acknowledging you don't know either cartridge, you offer a decisive opinion of both. How do you do that, it's a skill I'd like to learn...
I wrote:
I don’t have direct experience with either cartridge, but I *do* have experience with the Shibata stylus, high output MM carts, and (relatively) high output MC carts. I also have experience (from playing guitar) with the characteristics of alnico magnets on speakers and guitar pickups.
I only claimed some direct and some tangential experience with various elements of the cartridges in question. If you look at my response, I always present it as an opinion based on these tangential experiences.

The problem as presented by the OP is a rare situation that might not elicit any explicit responses. I was merely trying to present some information that might give the OP something to go on for further inquiry and evaluation, and was never intended nor presented as a definitive answer. 

The OP thanked me for my response. And you are ... what, the response police?

I apologize, Johhny. I was venting.

A few things about audio forums really annoy me — such as pompous ignorance and patronizing arrogance. You committed neither, I hasten to add.

Many people read something somewhere, or heard someone say something, and parrot it back as if they truly have knowledge, often with absolute certainty. They don’t what they read or heard was wrong to begin with, and/or they didn’t understand it. As a result they mislead people.

Others may really be experts, able to answer both basic and very complicated questions — but ask them a basic question, and you’re an idiot for not knowing. If they deign to answer you, it’s dripping with condescension. Rudeness dressed as superiority.

The Spelling & Grammar Police are also annoying. They know it’s just a typo, but they feel some need to criticize your spelling anyway — and they know someone is writing in English as a third or fourth language (and doing it very well) but just have to jump on their grammar.

 Here I was being a “Comment Cop”. Thanks for pointing it out.