A not too expensive MC cartridge for classical music

[mscili]

Good evening!

So, now I had time to try out the Hana SL on my Townshend Rock Reference with Excalibur arm. Everything connected to a ION Obelisk 3X, an with my Onkyo Q-1 loudspeakers. Unusual conbination, I know!

The first important point: I had to modify the MC phono stage of the Obelisk in oder to match the requirements of the Hana. On the documentation in the internet it's written that the MC card has an input impedance of 22 Ohm... On mine, which I bought second hand years ago, someone had already switched the resistors to 100 Ohm. And with 100 Ohm the Hana doesn't work, it's way too dark, completely wrong. So I removed the 100 Ohm resistors and I put 470 Ohm ones. Maybe not the really ideal setting, but definitely a working one (the manufacturer writes >400 Ohm).

So I started to listen... Mozart, piano concerto K 537, Harnoncourt / Gulda (Teldec DMM). I thought my setup with the ION and the Onkyo Q-1s was a bit light on the bass: well, not any more (!?). Very big sound with strong dynamic contrasts, very present low register but always articulated and understandable (timpani!) and never disturbing the rest of the spectrum, pleasant and attractive reproduction of the orchestral colours, extremely close and present solo piano, with all the violence and energy of Gulda's articulation and accents, but always warm (wood, not metal). Yes, a powerful big Steinway D and a pianist playing for a big hall (with the microphones quite close to the piano). We are in a nice big hall, with quite warm reverberation. Perfect tracking to the end of the side.

Schubert, a few Lieder from Winterreise, Fischer-Dieskau with Brendel (Philips) and with Gerald Moore (DGG)... I'd say, probably the best of all I tried up to now. Voice, piano (articulation, resonance, space), consonants, breath, everything is there and real, I get involved to the point of physical connection with the performer, I cannot just sit relaxed anymore, I am on the edge of the chair. The voice of the younger Fischer-Dieskau with Moore, the older with Brendel. Hard to imagine it sounding better. Perfect tracking also on passages where I thought my records were a bit worn out.

Strauss, Lieder, Jessie Norman (and Schubert, Lieder, Fassbaender)... Even if the piano sounds very clear, some limitations in the reproduction of the high register appear. Tracking is perfect, but overtones are missing, vowels have a tendency of sounding all the same. This is not ok, and it's not a detail. It's possible that my LPs are not in perfect shape, but I remember having heard more clarity and definition on these records (with a humble Technics MM cart fitted with a Jico SAS stylus, sounding in every other aspect much worse than the Hana). Is it the cartrige's limitation, or is it maybe something with the phono stage of the Obelisk...?

Beethoven, Sonatas for violin and piano, Kremer / Argerich (DGG). Very good. Really good! Very real and true sound from both instruments. Speed!

Schumann, different pieces for piano solo, Arrau (Philips). Very powerful, very big, but almost artificially dark and massive, sometimes a bit undefined in the piano passages... Listenable, but not very convincing... (Some Beethoven played by Brendel also on Philips sounds a bit similar).

Bach, Mass in B-Minor (Kyrie), Harnoncourt (Teldec NOT DMM). Oh! Definitely a recording made with many many microphones. Funny disposition of instruments and soloists. Very light in the bass (!), in general it feels like they took care to mix the recording in a pseudo-transparent way. But I hear the recording as it is... Very good tracking until the end of the side.

Schumann, String quartet in F major, Quartetto Italiano (Philips). We are again in a warm hall, but a very nice one. Very good transparency of all the voices, at the same time wonderfully natural mix of the four instruments. Good!

Wagner, Meistersinger, final of 2nd act, Karajan (EMI)... Terribly loud and complicated passage at the end of a long LP side. The compression is on the LP and is frustrating, but there is basically no mistracking and the whole is listenable... Maybe it's possible to do better, but the Hana is not bad at all.

Ok... I listened also to other things, in general the impression is very positive, just with some difficulties on the higher part of the spectrum. Something is missing there and I would like to have that too. Maybe changing the loading to 1KOhm would improve the situation? I don't have time to try that in the next days, unfortunately (soldering and so on). Everything should stay the same, just add a little extension on top. Any comments, any ideas? On Tuesday or Wednesday I should say if I buy the cartridge or not... I still have time to think a bit and consider different options...

Thanks, good night!
Marco

[Jimbo]

The Shibata stylus is a superb tracker and digs out great detail and nuances. Sounds like the Hana SL doing a lot of things right however you mentioned you wanted a bit more top extension? Therefore I would strongly recommend you try the AT33PTGii if you can?

[mscili]

Yes, the AT33PTG II is the strongest second candidate, but unfortunately I cannot try it before buying... So it would mean to give back the Hana and buy the AT, hoping that it fits as well as expected. I'm a bit hesitating, because I'm afraid that I may loose too much of the good sides of the Hana by switching to the AT33PTG. Are they really so similar, with only a little bit a different top end? Or, in other terms, is the middle and lower part of the spectrum with the AT33PTG as convincing, coherent and "musical" as with the Hana SL...?

[helma]

I have a Benz MC20E-2L which was also made by Excel. It's an old design and besides having a bonded elliptical stylus I imagine it's also built to a cheaper standard than the Hanas - however the generator I believe might be a close cousin at least. It has similar loading recommendations ( > 400ohm) and I played around with loading on mine quite a bit at some point. As I remember 220 ohms was clearly too low, 470 was already pretty good but both 680 and 1k were clearly better. I think I probably wasn't able to perceive meaningul differences between 680 ohm and 1k or just couldn't decide which one was better.

Granted, it's a different cartridge but still, based on that I'd recommended trying the Hana with a higher load up to 1 kOhm. Interestingly for whatever reason the Benz didn't seem nearly as fussy about loading when using a SUT.

[mscili]

Thanks, that is very interesting information for me. So I'm probably testing the Hana with a little bit too low load (kind of "just ok"), and there is potential for improvement exactly in the area I would like it to improve. So, chances that tomorrow I'll go and buy it are getting higher...

(In many ways, I really like the idea of buying something that I was allowed to test extensively by a very helpful dealer. Cartridges are basically the only hi-fi thing I can and must buy not second hand, so...).

[mscili]

So: yes, I bought the Hana SL. The list of the things it does really wonderfully is so long, that I really want to keep it. It makes good recordings sound wonderful, and it makes less good ones (like many Deutsche Grammophon pressings from the 70s...) sound limited, but still musically interesting (as opposed to unbearable, which is the case with some other carts). I'm happy, now I start to really enjoy the qualities of the Rock Reference, which I got last year...

Many thanks to everyone on this forum, your advice has helped a lot!