“All excellent. Perfect balance, timber, timing. It's got PYFQ. Pat your foot quotient. When you are listening and you are playing air drum, guitar, horns and voices. Something is very right!”
“Have a Pro-Ject 2XP Basic+ Acrylic turntable.
Replaced the Sumiko Blue Point 2 cartridge with the Hana SH. A dramatic improvement.
Even playing some of my 35+ year old vinyl the sound is detailed, full, outstanding. Looking forward to listening after the break in. A bit tedious to install and setup, took about 90 minutes.”
“I bought the Hana SH from Audio Advisor, but the review request asked me to review the SL, so I wanted this posted under the SH.
A fabulous MC cartridge for the price. Maybe one of the least cost effective cartridges to get true high end sound.
High outputs have an advantage in SN ratio over low output models, so I actually prefer them to low output types that have lower impedance coils, and less output.
I have been a long time MC user--both high and low output types. The cartridge I used mostly before this one was a Denon DL-160 (no longer available) - it is also a high output MC and has very similar specs as to output and coil impedance--Hana SH cartridge is better than the Denon with the Shibata stylus. I have also use Ortophon MCs, Sumiko Blue Point Special and Micro Benz.
The secret I think to using High output moving coils in general is to load them properly--most all suggest using MM input at 47K ohms load--but they are always too bright to me with the standard MM load, and people describe them as up front, because of the brightness the gain is correct with MM inputs, but 47K load is too high. The best loading on a High (or Low) output MC is about 7-10 times the coil impedance (typically 8x sounds about correct to me)--I loaded this one at 1K with the Project Tube Box S2. (available here too)
The Hana has 130 ohms coils and 130ohms * 8 = 1040 ohm load--so a 1K ohm load is almost a perfect load for this cartridge to me--I used 50DB of gain to better match my other inputs. (40 and 43 are OK fine too)--the Hana SH and Tube Box S2 seem to be made for each other--The sound was much better than leaving the Tube box in standard 47K MM mode, The cartridge sounds deep, wide and luxurious with this load, very quiet in the groove with the Shibata (which is my favorite shape for styli).
It is a bit too bright to me with 47K load but you may prefer it--the great thing about the Tube Box S2 is you can load it the way you like--I think the Phono Box S2 has the same loading features just no tubes--an all solid state model.
I think if you load it right the SH becomes more or less the same as the SL--after all , in most reviews when both are reviewed simultaneously, the SL is loaded properly, and the SH effectively is unloaded at 47K, which tips response up in the higher frequencies. This is the way they should be reviewed though as that is what Hana recommends--it is still very good at 47K, just better at 1K ohm load.”
“This cartridge really came to life after the break-in period. I should have bought it sooner.
It was easy to decide on a turntable upgrade (SL1210GR)....But when it came to cartridges it was really difficult to decide......All I can say ....I am very happy with my choice....Clean highs.....and very good base”
“This MC cartridge is by far the most musically enjoyable I have ever had. I have had MC costing over $2800 and none made the music as enjoyable. The Hanna SL just goes to work without fan fair and makes every record in my 4500+ collection enjoyable and that is what we are trying to do with our systems. To add to your enjoyment the surface noise is not audible so your music comes out of a jet black background, even ticks and pops are subdued. What more could you ask for? Break in period is right around 30 hrs so don't judge it till then. Set up is, VTA level tone arm, Tracking force is best at 2 grams and loading 1000 ohms. Just enjoy the music.”
