Hana Umami Black

Personally, I'd never pay anywhere near that for a cartridge, but the people who buy these don't worry about re-tipping costs or they buy new ones when they wear out. Seems like a bit of a money grab, but I'm a big fan of the Hana carts. Just wondering what this one sounds like and interested to hear what people think. 

@njkrebs 

Will you tell me your impressions of the Unami Red?   I am considering buy one.

My system is linked... 

If it matters, my music is 50% classical, 40% classic rock, 10% jazz, all at moderate to low volumes.

Regards,

I have no real issues with the cost, just how does the area of design that seems unique, justifies a price separation of approx' £7K

As this Black Model is a Flagship Model and seemingly quite separated through design than earlier Hana Flagship Models. 

It can be suspected that the Red and Blue Hana's are to be superseded by Cart's incorporating Trickle Down technology used on the Blsclk. 

A $7K and $4ish K Black sibling could be available for 2026.

I too would like to hear them, if they are realized, especially with my Bespoke Phon's and in the  Company of a Mutech Hahate and Ortofon Verismo. 

What's not to like? 

The pictured diamond cantilever looks exactly like what Koetsu used; it must be the same (Japanese) source. Koetsu models w/ this cantilever upgrade used to list at ~20K US MSRP, and went for ~7K "gray" market. The cantilever option was a $10K upgrade (US list) on its own. The new Koetsu incarnation hasn’t gone there yet; based on their other reintroduced models it could come in well above the old US pricing. 

Ortofon’s Verismo comes in at a lower price point (~ 7200), but their diamond cantilever must be from a different source, as it looks very different - not clear like this one. Is it a hybrid? I don’t think there’s any cheaper diamond cantilever option, short of sending your choice of cart to a 3rd party rebuilder who will get & attach the Japanese DC for you. 

Curious with the Umami Black, is that it seemingly overlaps with their own Etsuro upscale line. 

Besides the DC everything else looks pretty "standard" (0.3mV at 5 ohms, neodymium magnet, etc). Sure - they tweaked the pole piece / yoke configuration. Everyone has their own spin on this. Most tread pretty closely to the "classic" yoke design, with a few outliers: Ortofon’s compact motor (coil in magnet), Van den Hul’s "monopole" config (Colibri), Lyra’s dual magnet, etc. The fact that they mention the mechanical stability of their yoke arrangement is funny, because you can tell Van den Hul didn’t care about that at all lol

Big fan of the Hana cartridge but that is out of my league

for that kind of money, I would be looking at Koetsu or Lyra