Are you working with a budget of $3.5K - 5Kish ??
The Umami Blue might be the one that Bridges the divide between Hana and Ortofon.
The Blue descriptions I have picked up, certainly suggest it is a few increments towards Transparent, which is where my experiences of Ortofon Cart's would be a description from a certain range within their models, as a perception of an end sound.
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I was considering the MSL Hyper Eminent EX which sells for about $5,500 US.
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Investigating the Umami Blue might supply info that encourages it to be a Cart’ of Interest, with quite a few $$$’s left in ones coffers if a purchased item.
The Link is an Older discussion on similar requested info.
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/cartridge-advice-please-2
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@dwcda
At $5k you should look at the Etsuro Blue ( Cobalt ). Resolving and very musical.
It is a substantial upgrade from the Hana's ( which are the Etsuro designers lower range ).
Personally I found the MSL nice, a little bit of warmth in the mids, but not as resolving through the mids as some others in that price range.
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If your looking at My Sonic Labs you should also be looking at Airtight and Haniwa as they have the same designer…
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Maybe Ortofon cadenza bronze as it was used by many vendors at audio shows. The Ortofon Winfield also got rave reviews. At your price point, many good options.
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I am very familiar with the Ortofon Windfeld and do very much like it as a Cart'.
Demo's of it in use have been in a system I am very familiar with and own the same TT > TA.
I have also heard this in use compared to other Ortofon Cart's some original and some having modifications/redesigns, as well as couple of Cart's from different Brands.
The Windfeld is easily able to be seen to Standout, but when experiencing it, there is also to be detected, a little extra presence in the noticeability of the Bass Notes, the underpinning of the Bass Notes can become a distraction for the Cart' when experienced in a demo' that is also a comparison.
The outcome for myself is that the Cart' is capable of leaving the impression there is a Hint of Richness of Tone inherent to the Cart', which is then a matter for the individual using the Cart' to decide which level of Richness of Tone is wanted to be lived with. For me I have no issues with the presence of Richness of Tone I detected.
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I went from Hana ML to an Aidas CU Series Durawood Bee. An amazing instrument, and retipping is very reasonable.
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the hana umami m ay be just the thing
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I have the Ortofon Cadenza Black and have used it for about two years. I like it so much I bought another as a backup. Once my original needs service, I will have it rebuilt and keep is a a backup.
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I think the model is Denon 103 but you need to have the wood body installed beats the pants off of anything recomme3nded above modeled after the Gold Bug.
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My experience with cartridges is buying them, getting a few expensive clunkers and getting some really nice “cheap” and some expensive good ones. All just buying based on the same reviews you probably read. Basically just trading the reviews and trial and error.
One mid-point cartridge that I liked so much I bought a new one for my daughter is the Van den Hul Frog Gold. Green and kinda stupid looking. But it sounds consistently nice. It’s also really easy to install correctly and adjust. Not sure why, as you would think they’d all be more or less the same.
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@dwcda, any concerns with getting a MI Soundsmith cartridge? If I could only use one cartridge, it would be a Soundsmith.
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@rhg3 +1 for SoundSmith cartridges
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I have been selling and installing (and inspecting under a stereoscopic microscope) cartridges since the late 80’s. My experience has shown that Ortofon cartridges are by far the most consistent in manufacturing. So much so, that, after dialing the tracking force, adjusting the tone arm to be dead nuts parallel to the platter will give you perfect VTA, or, more properly, stylus rake angle. And the diamond mounting has always been perfect, not a given with many 4 figure cartridges. Likely there is an Ortofon cartridge that will suit your taste and budget. Mine was the Cadenza Bronze mounted on a Linn Ittok arm and LP-12. And please consider a SUT. You won’t be disappointed.
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Anywhere near the $2K price range and Lyra Delos gets my vote and would be suitable for your arm and phono preamp. It does everything right and sounds great at all frequency bands but the midrange is stellar.
Betters the comparable range in the Ortofon Cadenza IMHO.
The Audio Technica ART9XI is a giant killing sweet, squeaky clean and colorful sounding cartridge at its price point.
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You might also want to look at Benz, and Ikeda cartridges, or even EMT cartridges.
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It is worth listening to Shelter Harmony, if the budget allows. I have tried in my system most of the above referenced cartridges and Harmony sounds the best all around. My other preferred choice will be the MSL Signature Gold. Good luck in your search.
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Also the Mutech Hyabusa in past investigations has been made known to fall into the category of competing with the sonic of MSL Cart’s I have posted Links in the past to such comments made by a very experienced individual using a large range of Japanese Origin Cart’s.
If Purchasing in the US, do make sure the Warranty Period is clearly made known in writing by the Vendor. It has been made known on the Gon, a purchase made not too long ago for a $10K Cart’, was to supplied a Cart’ with a 12 Week Warranty.
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++1 on the Hana Umamis. They enjoy a broadly held reputation for (pardon the cliche) punching above their respective weight classes in the $2500 / $4000 range.
https://www.stereophile.com/content/recommended-components-2023-edition-phono-cartridges
https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/hana-umami-blue-phono-cartridge/
https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/the-hana-umami-blue-moving-coil-cartridge-review/
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I should also mention that WAM Engineering usually stocks a few units of both Umami models that it has photographed & analyzed microscopically for research purposes before releasing for sale, allowing buyers to accurately set a purchased unit’s rake & VTA (most precisely done with the company’s WallyTools). WAM throws in the analysis for free, which seems like a pretty good deal. (I plan to buy one myself in the next month or so.)
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Regarding Soundsmith I have read about a few bad experiences with very new carts having issues and the owner being left out in the cold.
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@dwcda would like to see those issues regarding SoundSmith. Maybe a customer had an issue but if Peter L didn't resolve the issue well that would totally surprise me.
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https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/a-very-bad-sound-smith-retipping-experience.374315/
There was another but I can't find it right now.
From that link:
I asked Sound-smith for a refund of $450 paid for the service, just to be accused that I caused all the problems with the cart by not using it correctly! Now I do not have the money or the cart that works. I can only advise everyone to be careful next time when you consider them for a retipping job.
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"I have been selling and installing (and inspecting under a stereoscopic microscope) cartridges since the late 80’s. My experience has shown that Ortofon cartridges are by far the most consistent in manufacturing."
Not to start a thing, but my relatively limited experience differs from yours. When I had my Ortofon 2M Black analyzed by WAM, the stylus was way off along every degree of freedom. I realize that the standard deviation of a single sample is infinity, but the owner & chief engineer of WAM, who has analyzed thousands of cartridges, confirmed that Ortofons are, like most carts, rarely if ever spot on.
I realize that we may be comparing apples to oranges, since I don’t even know what you mean by "inspecting" -- e.g., do you break in the cartridges suspension before measuring azimuth, SRA, VTA, etc. -- so I apologize if I’m making a bad assumption. But having researched this topic in great depth myself, if only on paper, I believe that, even if a cartridge is manufactured by a company that is "one of the most consistent," that’s hardly sufficient to justify an assumption that it can be aligned by simply setting the tonearm parallel to the record surface. Doing so blindly (at least with a non-spherical stylus) is almost certain to result in misalignment. The sad truth is that the cantilvers & styluses of even five-figure cartridges are usually out of spec, sometimes so far out that they cannot ever be accurately aligned.
https://www.wallyanalog.com/wallyreference-faq
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FWIW, I had my Grace Ruby re-tipped by SS using their top line ruby cantilever/OCL stylus option. When I got it back, suffice to say it did not sound "good". I notified Peter of my dissatisfaction, and he agreed to have a second look at the installation. Upon receipt, he immediately found the problem (an error on their end, which I did not completely understand, although Peter did explain it to me). SS fixed their issue and promptly returned the Ruby for no new cost (of course), and voila', the cartridge sounds better by far than a second Grace Ruby I also own, still with its original cantilever and elliptical stylus. In fact, the re-tipped Ruby is my favorite MM cartridge. So, they made a mistake, admitted the mistake, and fixed the mistake, all done with dignity.
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My Ortofon Winfield needed attention so I sent it to Peter @ Soundsmith. He repaired it with a new stylus ....and I must say it sounds great.
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Amazing that individuals are willing to Spend substantial monies on a Cart' that seemingly has a very high risk of not being optimised as a design from the outset.
Even more amazing is that the already non optimisation for the design, is expected to become a non optimised design, following a period being put in to service.
Does this suggest, Cart's especially of a certain value, where one would expect all models to be equal at the time of manufacture, are variable in certain elements within their design, hence offering a variant in a end sound, where an end sound of one could easily prove to be perceived as the better option.
Does such a variant in the Cart's condition at the time of manufacture also strongly suggest, as the Cart' becomes non optimised through usage, as a result of choices made for the manufacture, the Cart's will become more noticeably separated in their end sound over a not too long period of usage??
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When you use the term "optimized", do you refer to consistency of the manufacture of a given model or do you refer to a particular construction (body materials, cantilever type, stylus shape, coils, etc) that you deem to be optimal?
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I've arranged to have whatever cart I buy sent directly to WAM for analysis and then returned to me with some Wally Tools.
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I refer to a Cartridge that comes at a premium purchase price, being one that is not specifically produced under the most stringent quality controls, even to the point that Supply Chain Parts are selected for the most accurate assembly, or given a furthering of a Treatment the design team see as beneficial.
This topic ha been broached on in another recent thread, but got swept away from being kept ongoing, why not have it out here.
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For the past 5 years I lived with both, a Benz Micro LP-S ebony and an Audio technical ART-1000. I sold the benz last year, because the ART-1000 just gives more "life" to "live" recordings: deeper sound stage, sharper attacks, better focus around soloists. And now they have an improved version out with a square geometry of the coils, which supposedly gives more electro-magnetic flux. I can strongly recommend both, but in the end preferred the ART-1000. Until three months ago that is. On a recent business trip to Japan I met Mr. Sawada of ARLabs in Hamamatsu, who played his Miyaji MEMS cartridge for me a) in his living room, and b) in a coffee shop that is specialized to play analog music to its patrons through a 1 million dollar system featuring the large Avantgarde horn speaker assembly with plasma tweeters and a pair of super-woofers the size of a garage door. The cartridge is unlike anything on the market, as it is based on acoustically "listening" to the stylus movement with two independent square-millimeter-sized condenser microphones inside the cartridge body. In other words, the same physics here for playing a record that were used to record it. The result is complete linearity over the entire audible frequency spectrum (forget about RIAA equalization). Here is a website, which leads you further: https://www.monoandstereo.com/new-arsound-miyaji-mems-cartridge/ , or here: https://gestalthifi.com/arsound/. Long story short: I was so blown away by the life-like presentation of this instrument (in both venues) that I bought it on the spot after abusing a local ATM. In my opinion, this cartridge is a complete game changer based on fundamentally different physics, and a cartridge that tracks at 1.5 grams (!) and does not need a phono stage with its 250 mV (!) output. Price wise it is around $5,000 if you buy it stateside. So, if you have not yet bought another MC, you owe it to yourself to audition the future. Sadly, my beloved ART-1000 sits in the drawer now.
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2nd the Lyra Delos. Imaging is incredible
Just demoed the Kleos and it’s even more refined .
transients and low level detail are better
Good luck Willy-T
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Reimac, until reading your post, I had never heard of this new Miyajima cartridge that you purchased in Tokyo. I am a little disappointed in myself, because I just returned from almost 3 weeks staying with my son in Tokyo, and I would have loved that experience that you had. so can you please say more about the cartridge? The question that arises is that you can’t just forget about RIAA correction, because all LPs are encoded with the RIAA filter in the first place. So I am wondering if this is what others have called a strain gauge cartridge , and how well it informs to RIAA in the playback. Other companies that market strain gauge cartridges also market, a special gain stage that is said mysteriously to help the output to conform to the RIAA correction algorithm.
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I ordered an Etsuro Blue Cobalt & AnalogMagik software package with smartTractor.
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I’ve been using an ZYX “Ultimate Airy X” for a couple years now and absolutely love it. Detailed, big soundstage and 3-dimensional. If you have a bright system, it’s probably not the best, as it leans on the brighter side. It’s great with my system, which is very neutral or maybe slightly warm.
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@dwcda Where did you buy the Etsuro Blue from? It looks like buying direct from Japan would be the best price but I can't figure out how to do that.
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If a supplier in the Link can be contacted, they may be able to advise on how to purchase the Urushi Etsuro Blue.
https://www.fromjapan.co.jp/japan/en/item/search/My+Sonic+Labs/Al_11_Yh_RaSuBpRmMrMv_N_N_0A00ja00_N/
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I mean a Koetsu, Rosewood would be my endgame...
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@pinwa I bought it from Don Corby.
corbysaudio.com
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The Links are to an individual who I trust with their assessments, they have done their own reviews on Etsuro and other Japanese Cart's, it is worthwhile reading some of these, the other Link is the US Distributor listed on the Etsuro Urushi Web Page.
https://www.analog-forum.de/wbboard/index.php?thread/150057-shakti-vorstellung-etsuro-urushi-gold-mc-system/
https://tricellenterprises.com/
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