Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

While the square-section former and 90° coil windings of the Umami Black bear some similarity with those used in Skyanalog’s MCs [HFN Mar ’25 and Sep ’24], and OEM derivatives like the Kensington C-600 [HFN Dec ’25], Hana’s open-format rare-earth magnet yoke structure is clearly different and specific to its models. We’ve also seen diamond cantilevers before [HFN Dec ’22, and see boxout] but the ‘Microline’ nude stylus is especially cleanly mounted in the Umami Black and this combination of a low tip mass with super-stiff cantilever delivers an exceptionally strong and extended HF response [see Graph 1]. There’s excellent lateral/vertical symmetry here – promoting a uniformly deep and wide soundstage – but the right channel is still ‘hotter’ at +7.4dB/20kHz than the left at +4.1dB/20kHz. VTA is also slightly higher than expected at 25°, but equalised distortion remains impressively low [see Graph 2], and uniformly so up to ~2kHz (0.6% at –8dB re. 5cm/sec) with a peak of 6% at 12kHz on the right and 8.6% from the left.

Stereo separation is excellent at 35dB midband and output is close to Hana’s 0.3mV specification at 290μV (re. 1kHz/5cm/sec into 100ohm), though the Black’s channel balance could be tighter at 0.5dB. Either way, an MC phono stage offering 60-65dB of gain will be perfectly adequate for the Umami Black. Tracking performance is also very good indeed, the moderate 2.0g recommended downforce partially mitigating the low-ish 12cu vertical compliance. Unequalised distortion is a low 0.2% through the +12dB groove (re. 0dB at 315Hz/5cm/sec) while the Black holds on to the maximum +18dB modulation at ~1.3% THD without actually mistracking. This is a very fine performer. PM