Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

Hana is one of the in-house brands of the Excel Sound Corporation, based in Yokohama, Japan. Formed in 1970, the company initially made cartridges under its own Excel brand, before becoming an OEM supplier to many large manufacturers across the world, as well as Japanese companies including Pioneer, Trio, Sansui and Sanyo. It is said it once manufactured up to 50,000 MM cartridges per month during vinyl's heyday. However, as interest in vinyl waned in the '80s, the company diversified into lower-cost audio and video accessories, though it retained a small role as an OEM supplier of cartridges.

In more recent times it was decided that demand was sufficient to re-start production of its own brands once more, and the result was the Hana range of cartridges introduced in 2015. The word Hana means 'Brilliant and Gorgeous' in Japanese, so the company certainly made its intentions clear from the very beginning. All pick-ups in the Hana series are designed by company owner Masao Okada-san, who has been with Excel Sound since the beginning, and has considerable experience in the engineering that goes into the company's products.