The HANA Umami series represents the pinnacle of Master Designer Masao Okada-san's 50+ years of cartridge engineering at Excel Sound Corporation in Tokyo. Each Umami cartridge is built to extract the full depth and emotional resonance of your vinyl collection, using proprietary generator designs, hand-selected materials, and meticulous assembly that only decades of dedicated experience can produce. The name "Umami" captures exactly what these cartridges deliver: a deeply satisfying, harmonious listening experience that transcends simple accuracy and reaches something closer to the music itself.
The flagship Umami Black features a diamond cantilever and the exclusive OKD high-efficiency generator system for absolute reference-level retrieval. The Umami Red brings much of that flagship performance with a boron cantilever and nude Microline stylus. For those entering the Umami line, the Umami Blue pairs a cross-shaped armature with a nude Microline stylus, delivering remarkable resolution at a more accessible price point. All three are low-output moving coil designs requiring a quality MC phono stage for best results.
