Hana Umami Red Reviews

The Absolute Sound, 2021 ‘Golden Ear Award’

From a sound perspective, this cartridge has exceptional balance that allows the musical timbre of instruments and vocals to present themselves truthfully with realistic integrity. If you couple these attributes with excellent micro/ macro-dynamics, the ability to unravel harmonic complexity, a slight tilt towards warmth, and smooth yet extended high frequencies, you have an excellent transducer. The Umami Red is the best-sounding cartridge to come from the Excel factory, and I’ve heard a number of them, including some expensive OEM models. At its price point, the Umami Red provides deliciously enjoyable class-leading performance compared with cartridges in the same price range.

Hi-Fi+ magazine  Cartridge of the year 2020

‘ A design that gives you both the sort of detail and precision of sound that presents whatever music you put on the platter with a laser-guided focus on the recording itself, and a musical grace and passion.

The Hana ML and MH gets you glimpses of what a really good cartridge can do. The Umami Red gives you the complete picture. It represents the top end of Hana’s output, but goes toe-to-toe with some exceptionally rare cartridges with some very lofty reputations. And it sacrifices nothing. This is truly top-tier LP replay. ‘

Hi-Fi+ magazine, awards edition Dec. 2020

‘ The Hana Umami Red has an ease and effortless to the way it approaches music-making that deserves to be heard. It is beautifully detailed and can be particularly enthralling when it comes to acoustic fare which only serves to make it all the more compelling as a musical companion. And it will rock out too. Umami? Most definitely. At times I was even tempted to describe it as Saiko (stunning). ’

Hi-Fi News magazine. Dec. 2020

‘ It’s silky elegance and perfect naturalness are particularly impressive ……. The Umami Red played unbridled and yet extremely disciplined, giving free rein to fortissimo attacks but not forgetting the all-important echo of the room, which enveloped the whole performance.

The Umami Red does not pose a question of taste or even lets it arise. It is  not only a perfectly, but also an exquisitely arranged and prepared MC pickup! ’

Stereo Magazine. Nov. 2020

One of my “go-to” torture tests for tracking is the Speaker Corners reissue of the Swiss Movement with Les McCann and Eddie Harris Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1969. Not only are they hard to track but there is a “rawness” to the sound that, if captured correctly, is amazing to hear. On the other hand, if the cartridge can’t handle the tracking, it can sound like fingernails on a chalkboard. This is an incredibly fine line that the Umami-Red negotiated without breaking a sweat.

It is one of the very few cartridges that have done so for me.

This cartridge connects you emotionally to the music. It can negotiate virtually anything you throw at it and never get flustered. Its balanced sound always seems to reveal a new interpretation of music that you are familiar with. You will find yourself just wanting to pull out albums and have a listen.

If you are looking for a cartridge in this price range that you can have a long-lasting relationship with, one that will drive you to be more involved with your vinyl collection and less involved with your equipment, then the Umami Red simply has to be on your shortlist.

“Welcome to the big leagues, HANA. You’ve earned it!”