HANA Umami Red Moving Coil Cartridge

The HANA Umami Red is a low-output moving coil phono cartridge built around a Microline nude diamond stylus, a boron cantilever, a Samarium Cobalt magnet generator with 6-ohm coils, and a CNC-machined Duralumin "Auricle" body finished in gloss Urushi lacquer. Master designer Masao Okada-san built it as Hana's flagship from 2020 to 2025, and it remains the brand's reference statement under the new Umami Black. Output is 0.4mV with a recommended load above 60 ohms. The entry-flagship below is the Umami Blue.

Key Features of HANA Umami Red Phono Cartridge

• Microline nude diamond stylus: precision-cut single-piece line-contact diamond mounted directly to the cantilever, with a long vertical contact patch and approximately 2.5-micron contact radius for high-frequency tracing well below the wear pattern of conical and elliptical styli.
• Boron cantilever: solid boron rod with roughly three times the specific stiffness of aluminum at lower mass. Pushes the first cantilever resonance well above the audible band and tightens transient attack.
• Samarium Cobalt magnet generator: rare-earth Samarium Cobalt produces a stronger, more focused magnetic field than Alnico at the same physical size, which lets Hana use shorter coil windings (6-ohm coil impedance) while holding 0.4mV output. Higher field strength translates to faster transient response and tighter dynamic envelope.
• CNC-machined Duralumin "Auricle" body, gloss Urushi lacquer finish: A7075 aircraft-grade aluminum machined from solid billet. Urushi is a Japanese lacquer (sap of the urushi tree, applied in many thin coats and cured for weeks) traditionally used for high-grade musical instruments and tea-ceremony objects. The lacquer damps body-borne resonance and protects the Duralumin substrate.
• 0.4mV output, 6-ohm impedance, 10.5g weight: mid-to-high-mass cartridge that wants a 10-15 gram effective-mass tonearm. Compatible with quality MC phono stages running 60dB or more of gain, or MM stages with 1:10 to 1:20 step-up transformers.
• 30dB channel separation, 0.5dB output balance: flagship-class symmetry between channels. Soundstage cues that depend on inter-channel timing accuracy (depth, lateral positioning, ambient space) come through unblurred.
• Pure iron pole pieces and 24K gold-plated output pins: pure iron concentrates magnetic flux at the gap. Gold plating keeps the signal-path interface corrosion-free over the cartridge's working life.
• Hand-assembled by Excel Sound: every Umami cartridge is hand-built in Japan by Excel Sound's craftsmen, with over 50 years of cartridge-manufacturing history and OEM work for several premium brands.

The Umami Concept and the Excel Sound Pedigree

"Umami" is the fifth taste, named in 1908 by Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda-san to describe the savory, layered flavor that emerges when specific ingredients combine in synergy. Hana borrowed the word for the same reason: every part of the Umami Red is selected and matched against every other part, and the result is meant to be greater than the sum of the components. Boron at the cantilever, Microline at the diamond, Samarium Cobalt at the magnet, pure iron at the pole pieces, high-purity copper at the coil, Duralumin and Urushi at the body. None of those choices is unique to Hana on its own; the synthesis is. Excel Sound has been making cartridges in Japan for over 50 years, including OEM work for several premium brands sold under other names. The Umami Red is the cartridge they built when Okada-san was given license to use the parts he wanted at the price he needed, with no compromises forced by an OEM customer's spec sheet.

Microline Nude Diamond and Boron Cantilever

The Microline is a more aggressive line-contact profile than the Shibata used on the SL MK II. Contact radius is around 2.5 microns, the vertical contact patch is longer than a Shibata, and the diamond reads more of the recorded modulation per pass. Inner-groove distortion drops, high-frequency information that softer profiles average out becomes audible, and the stylus rides in groove territory below the wear pattern of older profiles. The diamond is mounted nude (single-piece, no metal shank between diamond and cantilever), which keeps tip mass to a minimum.

The cantilever is solid boron rod. Boron's specific stiffness (stiffness divided by density) is roughly three times that of aluminum, so a boron cantilever resists bending under stylus drag better than aluminum at a fraction of the moving mass. The first cantilever resonance is pushed well above the audible band, transient attack on percussion and plucked strings comes through with the leading edge intact, and high-frequency information transfers from groove to coil with less low-pass softening than aluminum gives you.

Samarium Cobalt Generator and the 6-Ohm Coil

The Umami Red generator uses a Samarium Cobalt magnet rather than the Alnico magnet Hana puts in the M, S MK II, and Umami Blue tiers. Samarium Cobalt is a rare-earth alloy with significantly higher magnetic field strength per unit volume than Alnico. The practical consequence: Hana can use shorter coil windings (lower coil impedance, 6 ohms versus 8 in the Blue) while holding output at 0.4mV. Lower coil impedance means lower coil mass, lower coil inductance, and faster transient response at the generator. The audible signature is a tighter, more focused dynamic envelope, more snap on percussive transients, and a slightly more extended top end than the Alnico-equipped models. Recommended load impedance is greater than 60 ohms; 100 ohms is a conservative starting point and 470 ohms is a common landing spot.

Duralumin Auricle Body with Urushi Lacquer

The Auricle body is unique to the Umami line. CNC-machined from a single billet of A7075 Duralumin (the same aircraft-grade aluminum used in airframes), the body geometry is shaped for both internal damping and rigid mechanical coupling between the cantilever pivot and the headshell. The finish is gloss Urushi lacquer, applied in many thin coats and cured over weeks, then polished. Urushi is a traditional Japanese lacquer made from the sap of the urushi tree, used historically on high-grade musical instruments and tea-ceremony objects. It bonds chemically to the Duralumin substrate, damps body-borne resonance, and is essentially indestructible at normal handling temperatures. Cartridge weight is 10.5 grams, which couples positively to mid-mass and high-mass tonearms in the 10-15 gram effective-mass range.

Tonearm Matching

Effective compliance is 10 x 10-6 cm/dyne at 100Hz (estimated 17 x 10-6 at 10Hz), recommended tracking force is 2.0 grams, and cartridge weight is 10.5 grams. The Umami Red sits squarely in mid-to-high-mass tonearm territory. Our most common pairings at this cartridge price point are the Michell TecnoArm 2, the Rega RB3000, the Rega RB-Titanium, and the Dynavector DV-507 MK2. Buyers running statement-tier turntables tend toward the Dynavector for its rigid pivot bearing and high effective mass, both of which give the Red's transient resolution somewhere to land.

Phono Stage Compatibility

The 0.4mV output and 6-ohm coil impedance want a moving-coil phono stage with at least 60dB of gain, or an MM stage paired with a 1:10 to 1:20 step-up transformer. The 6-ohm coil is more dependent on a quiet, well-designed MC input than the 8-ohm coil in the Umami Blue, so phono-stage matching matters more here. The matches we recommend from our lineup are the Michell Apollo at $4,999, the Audia Flight FL Phono at $6,999, and the Kora at $7,999. Recommended load is greater than 60 ohms; 100 ohms is conservative and 470 ohms is a common landing spot after experimentation on your own system.

Hand-Assembled by Excel Sound

Every Umami cartridge is hand-built in Japan by Excel Sound craftsmen. Excel has been making cartridges for over 50 years and is the actual factory behind several premium-brand cartridges sold under other names. Hand assembly matters specifically because of how tight Hana's specs are at this tier (0.5dB output balance, 30dB channel separation): those numbers require coil winding and magnet alignment tolerances that machine assembly cannot deliver consistently.

Explore the HANA Cartridge Lineup

The Umami Red's place in the Hana ladder, plus the next step up:

• HANA Umami Blue: $2,500. The entry into the Umami flagship line. Same boron cantilever and Microline diamond as the Red, with the Alnico generator from the ML and an MTP-finished Duralumin body. The natural step-down for buyers who liked the Umami body and front-end but wanted a warmer Alnico tonal signature.
• HANA Umami Black: $11,500. The current Hana flagship. Diamond cantilever (a category first for Hana), the new "OKD" high-efficiency moving coil generator with rare-earth neodymium magnet, and an Urushi lacquer finish in black. The Black is not a Red painted black; it is a redesigned generator and a different cantilever material. The Red remains the value reference at the statement tier.

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HANA Umami Red Phono Cartridge Specifications