Hana’s Umami series, side by side. Here is the Umami Blue, the entry to Hana’s top tier, alongside the Umami Red and the flagship Umami Black, showing what each step up buys.

The Umami Blue is the entry to Hana’s Umami series, where the cartridge moves from well-engineered composite and Delrin bodies to a machined metal one. It is also where the cantilever material changes from aluminium to boron. Hana describes it as combining key ingredients of the Umami Red with the alnico generator of the ML. In practice that means the ML’s proven low-output generator and Microline stylus, now mounted on a stiffer boron cantilever and housed in the Umami series’ CNC-machined Duralumin body. It is a 0.4mV low-output moving coil that needs a quality MC phono stage. It is the cartridge for a high-end deck where the ML has become the limiting part, and the most accessible way into Hana’s top tier.

Brief product overview

The Umami Blue is a low-output moving coil cartridge with a nude Microline diamond on a boron cantilever. Microline is a fine-line profile shaped to mirror the cutting stylus used to make the master lacquer, so it traces the groove much as it was cut. Boron is lighter for its stiffness than aluminium, so groove information reaches the generator with less flex and smearing.

The generator is the ML’s: an alnico magnet with coils of high-purity copper, with key generator parts and the 24-carat gold-plated output pins cryogenically treated. The body is Hana’s Auricle design, exclusive to the Umami series, CNC-machined from Duralumin. It is finished in gloss blue by a melamine thermosetting process, a baked-on coating that hardens the surface and helps control resonance. Every Umami Blue is hand-assembled by Excel Sound in Japan.

Output is 0.4mV at 1kHz, with channel balance within 0.5dB. Coil impedance is 8Ω, and Hana recommends a load of more than 80Ω. It tracks at 2.0g with a dynamic compliance of 10 at 100Hz, a medium figure. It weighs 10.8g, best matched to medium- and medium-to-high-mass tonearms.

How it sounds

Against the ML, the Umami Blue keeps the same fundamental character but presents it with more authority and finer resolution. The boron cantilever and machined metal body give tighter, deeper bass, crisper leading edges and a more solid sense of instruments in the room. The Microline tip holds its contact with the groove right to the label, so complex passages stay separate and treble has air and extension without brightness. Images are stable and precisely located, low-level detail such as reverb tails and hall ambience is easy to follow, and the background is very quiet with a good MC stage. It keeps Hana’s natural, flowing quality, so the extra resolution never turns into an analytical edge.

The honest limits are partnership and price. A cartridge at this level needs a deck, arm and MC phono stage of matching quality. On a mid-range turntable, the ML gets you most of the way for much less. At 0.4mV it needs plenty of clean gain. And like any Microline cartridge, it rewards precise alignment and reveals the condition of every record. The Umami Red above it goes further in transparency and scale.

What we’d partner it with

The Umami Blue needs a high-end turntable whose arm, bearing and speed stability can match it, and a quality moving coil phono stage. We would partner it with one of two belt-drive turntables, both available without a cartridge and neither with a phono stage. They take opposite approaches to the same problem of keeping vibration out of the signal.

The first is the Rega Planar 10, Rega’s flagship and the clearest expression of its low-mass, high-rigidity philosophy. The plinth is a lightweight foam core in a phenolic resin skin. A ceramic brace links the arm mounting to the main bearing so that only the parts that matter are rigid. The platter is diamond-cut ceramic, and the hand-matched 24V motor runs from Rega’s dedicated P10 power supply, a crystal-referenced unit with DSP control that keeps speed precise. Its tonearm is the RB3000, Rega’s finest arm. The Planar 10 is offered bare, so the Umami Blue goes straight into it.

The second is the Pro-Ject Signature 10, which takes the opposite route. Its chassis is filled with metal granulate and sits on magnetic feet. Its 10.4kg TPE-damped platter runs on an inverted ceramic ball bearing with magnetic decoupling, and a record puck couples each disc to the platter. The idea is that mass and isolation soak up vibration before it can reach the stylus. Its 10-inch single-pivot aluminium tonearm uses an SME-type removable headshell and allows stepless, on-the-fly adjustment of arm height and mounting distance. The longer arm reduces tracking error across the record. It can also be ordered with a balanced output, which suits a low-output moving coil such as the Umami Blue.

Both decks need a moving coil phono stage with plenty of clean gain and loading above 80Ω. The Rega Aura is Rega’s dedicated reference MC stage. The Pro-Ject Phono Box RS2 offers balanced inputs that match the Signature 10’s balanced option. The Hegel V10 offers adjustable gain and loading over a wide range. All three are subject to a stock check. On cabling, the Signature 10 comes with Pro-Ject’s own tonearm lead, and the Planar 10’s arm is wired through to its sockets. Any upgrade should be low-capacitance and keep the earth connection; AudioQuest and Chord are the cable brands we stock.

Who shouldn’t buy it

If your phono stage is MM only, the Umami Blue isn’t for you, as every Umami model is low output. The MH is Hana’s best high-output option. If your turntable is a mid-range model, the ML uses the same generator and stylus on an aluminium cantilever in a Delrin and brass body, for considerably less. If you want the most Hana can deliver, the Umami Red and the flagship Umami Black are the next steps up. All four alternatives are subject to a stock check.

Setup notes: The Umami Blue fits a standard half-inch mount. Fit the stylus guard before mounting and keep it on until the cartridge is aligned. A Microline stylus on a boron cantilever repays precise setup. Set overhang and offset with a good protractor, set tracking force to 2.0g with a stylus gauge, and check azimuth with the cartridge square to the record when viewed from the front. Set arm height so the arm runs parallel to the record, then fine-tune by ear.

Connect it to a moving coil input with loading above 80Ω and enough gain for a 0.4mV cartridge. Settings from 100Ω to a few hundred ohms are worth comparing by ear. A step-up transformer into an MM input is an alternative route.

On the Rega Planar 10, set tracking force on the RB3000’s dial, and use Rega spacers if the arm needs raising to level it with the cartridge’s height. On the Pro-Ject Signature 10, choose the counterweight from the supplied set that balances the arm with the Umami Blue’s 10.8g fitted. Then use the arm’s on-the-fly adjustment to set arm height while a record plays. If you have a balanced phono stage, the deck’s balanced output option is worth using. On either deck, connect the earth lead. Expect the Umami Blue to settle over its first 20 to 30 hours of play.