Hana SL MC Phono Cartridge Review

Excel make a range of seven (7) Hana cartridges, all moving coil with high or low output and either Elliptical, Shibata or Microline stylii. My choice, the Hana SL, is a low output (0.5mV), nude diamond, Shibata line contact cartridge. Examining the diamond stylus mount on the cantilever, under my microscope, the nude diamond appeared to have been mounted perfectly at right angles to the cantilever and not twisted when viewed from the side and bottom. However, viewed from the front, the stylus while square to the cantilever appeared to be very slightly off square to the cartridge body as the cantilever seems to be twisted by a little less than one degree. (sorry no pictures).

Setup

My Musical Fidelity MX-VYNL pre-amp had previously been setup for fully balanced I/O operation. All I had to do was set the cartridge load to MC 400 ohm, +6dB gain and RIAA equalization.

Basic geometrical setup for this cartridge wasn’t to difficult in my Hadcock GH228 Super unipivot arm:

• The cartridge was securely mounted square and flat onto the existing head shell that was then mounted back on to the arm. First I had to drill out the original threaded head shell screw holes to fit the new larger metric cartridge bolts. (This method of mounting assumes that the stylus is mounted square on its cantilever as rotating the cartridge on the headshell is very limited).
• The anti-skating (bias) was disconnected and the cables attached to the cartridge.
• The tracking weight was initially set to a little less than 2 grams.
• The tracking angle was adjusted using the Hadcock supplied alignment template by adjusting the effective length of the arm. This is accomplished by adjusting the position of the head shell on the arm tube.
• The arm was set parallel to the vinyl surface by adjusting the height of the arms rear main support. Theoretically this sets the vertical tracking angle (VTA) to its optimum value of approximately 20 degrees. (A hotly debated topic – see also stylus rake angle (SRA)).
• Using a mirror the cartridge needle azimuth was set to be at right angles to the vinyl surface by adjusting the head shell “twist” on its arm and the unipivots rear concentric counterweight. (This resulted in a very small tilt of the head shell as the diamond was not perfectly perpendicular to the cantilever.)
• Once all this geometry was correct the tracking weight was fine tuned to exactly 2 grams and everything re-checked.
• The anti-skating was re-attached and the height of the bias pulley was adjusted to ensure that the bias connection was parallel to the arm thereby preventing it from affecting the previously set azimuth.
• This only left the need to set the anti-skating force (bias). That was achieved using my Hi-Fi Sound Stereo Test Record to ensure that minimum tracing distortion at +18dB was equally audible in both channels. No tracing distortion was audible at +11dB or +15dB. This was checked at the outside, middle and center of the album to confirm that the bias was set correctly. (See Hana SL Review Update for additional information)

Hana SL Mounted in Hadcock GH 228 Super arm

Finally the left/right balance, separation and phase were checked using an AC voltmeter and dual beam oscilloscope to confirm that the cartridge zenith and azimuth were optimal for the cartridge manufacture. Surprisingly I was unable to improve on my initial mechanical alignments.

Measurements @ 1KHz:

Left level -3dB. Right crosstalk -31dB. Right separation 28dB.

Right level -2.5dB. Left crosstalk -31dB. Left separation 28.5dB.

Left and right separation is 28dB or better and channel balance is within 0.5dB. Both within spec.

Impression

Let me first say that even at 2grams tracking weight and the cartridge at 75 degrees F it could not replay the +18dB level without some minor tracing distortion being audible equally in both channels. The 40+year old Entre could, despite both theoretically having the same compliance. However, after 40 years and thousands of tracks I am sure its compliance will have increased. (See Hana SL Review Update for additional information)

This miss-tracking never showed itself to be audible on any track at any level. As I understand it, a Shibata stylus is more sensitive to accurate groove alignment than elliptical or circular styli. The tracing distortion I noted may be nothing more than a mechanical alignment issue and/or a “break in” issue. Something I will check out later and report back in this post. (See Hana SL Review Update for additional information)

Upon playing my first track three things we’re immediately obvious:

1. Vinyl surface noise was notably lower.
2. The output level from this cartridge being +8dB higher than my Entre allowed me to turn off the extra +6dB of MX-VYNL gain and turn my amplifier gain down to 0dB or even lower.
3. The additional +8dB of output and attendant reduction in system gain produced a noise level that was all but undetectable at my MLP.

I decide to take my new cartridge for its first spin using my latest new 45RPM jazz recordings by Shelby Lynne, my reference big band recording by Harry James and of course Dire Straits – 45RPM Money For Nothing. The moment the needle touched the vinyl with Shelby Lynn I new this was going to be something special, and I was not disappointed, not even for one second.