"...the optical cartridge offers a more open, dynamic, pacey and detailed sound, delivering excitement and energy while capturing subtle nuances in the mix and individual musicians’ contributions."
AUGUST 13, 2025
The Hana Umami Blue Moving Coil Phono Cartridge and DS Audio Grand Master Extreme Optical Phono Cartridge both win the 2023 Golden EAR Award from The Absolute Sound.
Hana Umami Blue
By: Andre Jennings - The Absolute Sound - 2023 Golden Ear Awards
Hana has set another benchmark of performance-for-cost…Excel Sound Corporation has created another superb-sounding cartridge with the HANA Umami Blue.”
DS Audio Grand Master Extreme
By: Jacob Heilbrunn - The Absolute Sound - 2023 Golden Ear Awards
“Listening to it will surely turn almost any analog lover into an adherent…the results are immediately audible…and you have one of the, if not the, best cartridges extant.”
RECENT NEWS
"An upgraded version of the original and widely hailed Grand Master optical cartridge, it offers a rarefied experience, one not subject to the usual limitations of vinyl playback. Instead, it ascends to lofty Everest-like peaks of musicality that more fully access the hidden treasures buried in the black grooves of an LP."
AUGUST 7, 2025
"Sonically, the III has a wider dynamic window, lower noise, greater headroom, gain, transparency, detail, and resolution, with a new-found impression of roundedness, dimensionality, and density of tone and body."
AUGUST 7, 2025