Hana E (EL and EH) MC Cartridges

The 'E' series from Hana is their starting point of their range, with the 'E' referring to the Elliptical bonded diamond used, mounted on an Aluminium cantilever. The housing is made from rigid ABS and inside the magnets are made of Alnico, a material prized for its grain free and natural sound.

Two version of this cartridge are available, a conventional ‘Low’ output MC (0.5mV) and a high output MC (2mV) for connection into an MM phono stage.

Invariably there will be losses when making a high output MC cartridge, but with the Hana a good compromise appears to have been struck. There must be greater moving mass from the extra turns of wire necessary to produce the greater output level, but there is only a relatively small reduction in sound quality, a little loss of transparency and just the lightest touch of additional grain.

What this means in reality is that you do not have to have a costly step up transformer or MC equipped phono stage to enjoy what these cartridges do, so whilst the low output version does have the edge and would be our preference where possible, in real terms you do not feel like there is anything majorly missing with settling for the high output version. 

What the EL and EH do is to offer a great no nonsense entry level Moving Coil performance that’s colourful and musical to listen to, with a sweet and lucid mid band making them ideal with voices and strings and without many of the grating downside that some entry level MCs force you to endure (brightness/thinness of tone). For the price they represent excellent value for money.