Hana Umami Black

@mulveling My original plan was to do the upgrade. However I have the Piano Black version, and Musical Surroundings wanted to make sure I had well-matched plinths so they worked with my dealer to offer a trade for a new retail unit of the MI, and it didn’t cost me more either. I guess it pays to be a good and repeat customer over the years.

I now have three tonearms on my MI: two 12" Universal and a now a Tracer in addition.

Yep. They’ve also incorporated small changes / upgrades into the Master over years. The central bearing column has been notably beefed up. Acrylic platters you get today from Clearaudio can be a different color than those of 10 years ago. For lots of reasons, the best way to get a "coherent" Master is to buy a table that was manufactured as a Master! Agreed, a good dealer relationship helps enormously. Mine just retired :(  

And the black lacquer you have is the best looking version IMO (though all versions are cool) - enjoy! How is the Tracer versus the Universal? Is it better in any ways? I liked the Universal, though sold it a while back. 

The Tracer is a very fine arm and pretty big bang for the buck, IMO. I have no hesitation recommending it. I think it's the perfect match for a Performance DC table, and a solid choice for the Ovation. It's not quite as good as the Universal (which is what I recommend for Innovation level turntables), but it's also half the cost. I am using it for my secondary cartridge(s) - a Koetsu Rosewood and a DV XV-12s. My two 12" Universal are used for my Lyra Atlas Lambda cartridges (one a SL, the other a Mono).

I observed that Musical Surroundings is now representing the Supatrac line of tonearms from the UK. I am curious how one of those will perform on a MI, not that I'm looking to make a change.

Someone was asking about the Hanna  Red cart I have had this in my system for about 3 years it in my opinion is wonderful sounding, most of what I listen to is Jazz and Steely Dan it is very warm not harsh. The very first table in my system about ten years ago included a midrange cart from this Co. at 1/2 price if you were to buy it at the same time as the table.  I liked this cart a lot that is why I was interested in red when it first came out. I tried another cart at 3x the price of the red it was harsh sounding and hard on my ears after a few hours never did settle down as the dealer said it would hope this helps

I observed that Musical Surroundings is now representing the Supatrac line of tonearms from the UK. I am curious how one of those will perform on a MI, not that I’m looking to make a change.

@dwette  These days a no-nonsense, quality gimbal is what appeals to me. Everything else just gets needlessly overcomplicated, or lacks stability for heavy low-compliance carts like Koetsu. I have a friend interested in the Supratrac but it’s not for me. And the True-Glider, or other Well-Tempered spirit animals? You couldn’t pay me to use those lol. I liked the Graham Phantom, but in the end this seems like a lot of engineering to make a unipivot work more like a gimbal. 

The Tracer indeed seems like a nice sweet-spot for price, quality and handling. Good on Clearaudio for replacing the absurd magnetic-bearing (no stability, lots of easily excitable resonance modes) with something sensible! Wonderful cart collection you’ve got there. Koetsu in combination with something fast / detailed is always a good 1-2 punch that well-covers most of a record collection. I did that for a while - Koetsu for the older pressings and Shelter Harmony or Ortofon Windfeld for modern (I imagine Lyra delivers here). Of course sometimes you can mix that up for fun too :) 

@mulveling 

+1000 on your comments about the Clearaudio arms with magnetic bearings. I once had the Clarify and then the Magnify magnetic bearing arms on an Ovation. It was a disaster. Anytime a truck by the house, or my wife the back door shut the magnetic bearings would get upset and didn’t recover quickly enough. Classical solo piano was unplayable in those circumstances. After complaining I was offered a deal to upgrade to the Universal which solved all those problems instantly and completely. The benefit of a great gimbal arm with precision bearings.

I’m more curious about the Supatrac arms than anything. I have heard good reports about them. They are expensive. The entry level is about the same cost as the Universal arm (~$7K).

I play a lot of older and newer classical and jazz records and reissues. The Lyra Atlas are really sublime. They do do everything the Dynavector XV-1s does, but much, much better.