Soundsmith has great info about cartridges
I’ve never heard the Hana ML, I see many here choose it. Someone: bring yours to Plainfield, NJ, let’s hear it here!!!!!
For my 1st Moving Coil I chose and highly recommend an Audio Technica AT33PTG/II (what an odd name). Similar Microline stylus tip, but it has a stiffer cantilever made of tapered boron rather than aluminum. Half the price of the $1,200. Hana ML at $600. (eBay new $470). I wish it had threaded fittings like the Hana ML for initial mounting ease.
If you play a lot, and take a long view, then Soundsmith’s retip service can be a big advantage
https://www.sound-smith.com/services/phono-cartridge-repair-restoration-tip-repair
Imaging: I always find and compare channel separation/channel balance specs knowing you need to read about/ascertain/judge it’s sound characteristics separately. AT33PTG/II channel sep 30 db; channel balance 0.5db. those achieved performance specs provide exceptional imaging.
AT has a trade in program, I sent my worn one to them, they sold me a new one at half price, I like it’s sound so much I didn’t even consider anything else.
Cantilever Stiffness: I believe my ears/experiences as well as what I have read about the benefits of light/stiff cantilevers, the pinnacle material was beryllium.
A big advantage is lighter tracking, advantageous to both your stylus life and your lp’s grooves, and (readily heard and enjoyed) improved quality of bass notes. Hana ML and AT33PTG/II both track at 2.0g.
Shure’s beryllium V15Vxmr tracked at 1,0g. (beryllium use for cantilevers was halted for health concerns): I just bought a Vintage AT160ml microline on beryllium to join my collection of sapphire tube, boron, aluminum. I have to concentrate to hear subtle differences between the sapphire tube and boron, the AT160ml difference is discernible easily, it is wonderful, I am so glad I took a risk and bought it based on the memories, and happily it tracks at only 1.25g.
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I would say that I've invested a similar and decent amount in digital and analog front ends and I like and use both. To me one of the advantages of digital is that media can be less expensive with the cost of CD's vs LP's. I've tried streaming but I don't have time for exploring new music and will probably sign up for Qobuz once I retire which would also give me access to more hi res. To me digital sounds more clear, but ultimately LP's sound much better and have this added dimension that sounds more real to me. I have a lot of music on my NAS that I listen to with Roon, but given the choice I'd much rather listen to an LP. I would add my system to my profile but haven't been able to figure out how to do that.
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OP before I became involved on analog seriously. I bought good sacd players Marantz Sacd players SA 10 and Ruby . Thinking that sacd is very close to vynil? Not until I heard a very good analog set up to my friend house . He is using Lyra delis MC with SME 10 tonearm.I knew there is something special on vynil then that digital don’t have.i fell in love on vynil . I end up spending more than 20k for my 2 turntables and phono preamps and cabling.
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While I still have two turntables (cheap) I got rid of 90% of my vinyl years ago. I do however still have a CDT that I use every once in a while to listen to the 2600ish CD’s I still have. I do have about 2200 albums ripped on a NAS that I listen to every now and then, but I am really getting lazy and streaming more and more.
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I've done serious seat-time with state-of-the-art digital source equipment (i.e. streaming & CDs) and relatively affordable good quality analogue source equipment (i.e. non-Mikey Fremer astronomically priced TTs; phono stages; carts; etc.) and continue to prefer well recorded & engineered vinyl or analogue sound over digital. Like vinyl, digital recordings can be poorly mastered & engineered, as well, and streaming sources can vary quite a bit in sound quality. So, when equalizing for such variables as much as possible (i.e. comparing apples to apples, oranges to oranges, and using clean vinyl), my ears still prefer vinyl over digital. This is certainly not to say that well sourced & recorded digital isn't as good. it's just different. To my ears, digital is almost too clean, too perfect. It's missing something, something I find difficult to describe, a feel of realism or actually being there, at the musical performance. This will seem totally paradoxical but maybe it's the absence of the feeling of ambient sound on vinyl, even though clean records on a good analogue system come from a totally black background. I don't feel that with digital. It's either sound or nothingness. On the other hand, maybe it's just because my ears are children of the 50s & 60s and grew up with vinyl. Maybe it's neuroaudiological conditioning. At any rate, I listen to and thoroughly enjoy both digital and analogue realms. Digital, of course, is far more convenient, especially when entertaining guests, and much less demanding of your time & attention (e.g. flipping records, cleaning styli, dusting off records, cuing up tracks, etc.). For those of you who disagree and much prefer digital over analogue, that's OK! It's still a free country ... for now anyway. VIVE LA DIFFERANCE! After all, it's really all about the love of music, isn't it?
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+1 for both posts from @ghdprentice . My experience is identical to his and I could not have articulated it better. I only use my vinyl rig when I have a recording not on Qobuz, which is not often, or if in a nostalgic mood to play a rare record like a red vinyl 78 of Enrico Caruso or a special edition Benny Goodman record.
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ghdprentice,
I am in a similar place as you are, except all of my gear is fairly modern TOTL CJ tube equipment. I too have a well appointed modern LP12 and it is sporting a Grado Aeon 3 cartridge. Although I have just North of 3K vinyl LP's my wife laughs that there are really on 50 or so in regular. The sound is wonderful. However, in the never ending search to get my digital (currently using Cary DMS 600) closer to that of my analog set up, I have earmarked $15K- $20K . That may sound lie a lot to some people, but my LP12 has that amount in it without the $6K cartridge included. I have two other TT's: a new Rega P10 with a Transfiguration Proteus D cartridge, and a Nottingham System Deck with a Koetsu RSP. At 64 years old with a progressing retina disease, I find it easier to have several TT's set up which I can swap in and out rather than changing a cartridge on a tonearm. From an ease of use, and an economics view point, digital gives a good bit more value.
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@dogberry I am first and foremost a music fan. I didn't realize this was an exclusive group. I was just excited to share my experience.
@audionoobie I wasn't referring to you! You are more than welcome here.
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@signaforce that's really interesting. Before my recent analog epiphany I had considered purchasing the Denafrips 15th hoping to add some R2R warmth to my Lumin.
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Thanks for the great responses, everyone! In a forum where opinions vary on almost everything, it's refreshing to see the Hana receive such widespread praise.
I'm so happy with my system right now that I'm not itching for a change. But when the itch starts, I'll look to pick up the Hana and an appropriate SUT as I'm keeping the Herron. It must be made with some magical fairy dust, because it sounds sooo good.
I updated my virtual system, because sharing is caring. Look for Audionoobie's System 2025 under my profile.
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In my journey, I finally decided to stop selling gear that I liked but tired of and put back in the box. It costs nothing to keep it, it's properly stored so it doesn't go bad, and when the 'something different' bug bites me, I have gear on hand rather than adding more to the already long list of gear that has gone before. I will inevitably hook something up and think, "damn, I forgot how good that sounds." Besides, it's never a bad idea to have spares on hand.
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Nice O Brother, Where Art Thou reference @reubent. 
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Thanks for sharing. I think Going back to vinyl triggered your love for listening to vinyl. I find different platforms can sound different depending on the source and setup. I started with 45s, then 8 track, albums, cassettes, CDs and now streaming. I find the portability and convenience factors matter the most to me. On top of that streaming has me listening to new music and new to me old music for the price of a CD or album a month. My main system now is the best I’ve ever had. It’s amazing how good it sounds streaming whatever song I want to play. I still play CDs for physical music but only stuff I can’t find online. It’s a great time to love music and stereo equipment however you choose to listen. Things members of this site appreciate and share.
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+another for Hana ML. My ML/Pro-ject/Aria analog combo easily bests my Aurender/Qobuz/Qutest digital combo for about 2/3 the price.
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I listen to streaming, CDs (got a new CD transport in the last year or so), and vinyl, and all of the formats, utilizing my well sorted system, sound astonishingly good. They don't compete with each other and seem to get along. I have lots of great CDs and vinyl collected for many decades with no desire to dump any of it to just stream...the gear doesn't care, the CDs and vinyl just sit and wait for me to listen to them and don't seem to mind my streaming (they're inanimate objects by the way), and it all provides music somehow...who knew?
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I agree with you fellers.....
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As someone, like many here, who have gone through the various ways of listening to music from my first Sears 3-in-1 stereo system I got from Santa at age 8 to a rack system in college to a striped back system of a receiver and CD player to purely streaming for years (starting with low-quality MP3s ripped and traded with friends) while DJing in grad school, until now. As a middle-aged gGen Xer, I never really got rid of my vinyl and CDs through all my listening stages of life,
I would recommend not going with the either/or approach. Keep the vinyl rig and the streaming rig. I still buy music in digital, CD and vinyl format. And enjoy listening to all 3 formats all the time. Sometimes to compare sources, sometimes for critical/purposeful listening and as wallpaper for around-the-house activities.
Enjoy both for what they offer. I've made the decision that for some artists I want to collect, I choose a format. For example, I'm a big New Pornographers fan and have albums in all 3 formats but the digital copies were never great. So I choose to reinvest in getting their catalog all in vinyl. Every album came w/ a digital download so I have copies for streaming convenience. For other artists, they may only be in the digital or CD format domain so I go that route.
I won't make recommendations on gear because my price range and needs are very different from yours and others on here. Some with deeper knowledge and experience in niche/boutique brands I'm only now hearing about. But I will say, don't paint yourself into one corner or the other. Be a music-first audiophile! And enjoy your collection on the vinyl and streaming set up you have. Don't limit your experiences. Variety is the spice of life!
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Demo a Lumin X1. I’ve got all my vinyl in a Qobuz Favorites list now and the very nice vinyl rig (Well Tempered Verselex, Shelter 501mk3 cart, Line Magnetic tube phono stage... etc. a pretty quiet setup) sits there looking pretty. The X1 is simply a better "analog" source...
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+3 for Hana ML.
Congratulations on keeping the Herron Phono, I've always been on the lookout for a used one since it's no longer in production. Never had the luck. Also if you decide to go the route of LOMC, using a SUT into the MM stage of your Herron should be the bees knees.
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I have an excellent digital front end (Naim NDX2/XPSDR) for streaming Qobuz over Roon (running on an Intel NUC with ROCK). I just never play it. I play records, old and new. They're awesome. They make me tap my toes.
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FYI. I have an outstanding vinyl rig... top contemporary Linn LP12, Koetus Rosewood Signature cartridge, Audio Research Reference 3SE Phonostage. You can see my system under my UserID. Absolutely top rate and fabulous sounding, I’ll play a great audiophile recording... and think, wow... no way my streamer can compete with that. So I’ll find the same recording on Qobuz and low and behold... it sounds just as great... sometimes better if it was far down the list of pressings. I’ve stopped the comparisons and just listen to streaming as my great collection of albums and turntable collect dust.
Since I have a 2,000 album vinyl collection, containing many audiophile recordings and mostly pristine and great albums. I may go ahead and invest another $12K on a cartridge, which will allow my analog leg to pull ahead again... it will add additional detail, not really change the tonal balance. Without my album collection I wouldn't consider putting any more money in my analog section. I'd put it in the rest of my system.
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Music is awesome- I have analog music and it’s something I enjoy for a small percentage of my listening. Yet it’s always satisfying and shocks some of my guests if they aren’t aware of how good vincas sound.
Enjoy your journey! And I don’t think you must choose digital vs analog…it’s an option.
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Yes and for me streaming is like a kiss on the telephone.
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+2, Hana ML. This cart will further elevate your listening until you’re ready to upgrade your TT.
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I'm an old guy who grew up on vinyl, CD, and reel-to-reel. I've been streaming my music exclusively for about the past four years or so. Whenever I attend audio shows or visit my local audio shops and they play vinyl or CD, of course, it all sounds just wonderful. Still, when I'm at the shows or audio shops, I just smile at the thought that, I managed to put together such an incredible sounding streaming only audio system, that's so very satisfying to me, I still have no desire to return to either vinyl or CD. But, that's just me. The world of high end audio includes vinyl, CD, streaming, reel-to-reel, etc., or whatever tickles your fancy. It's a wonderful world!!! Happy listening.
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@tomic601 +1 on the Hana ML. For the money, I think it's a great cartridge.
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there is no exclusivity in my mind… a Hana ML would work well w your TT and your Herron…IMO
Enjoy the journey… wherever it may take you.. all who wander are not lost
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@dogberry I am first and foremost a music fan. I didn't realize this was an exclusive group. I was just excited to share my experience.
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Funny how streaming fans like to hang around here. Perhaps they think they are missing something...
I have to add the obvious comment: there are recordings so good that they stand out almost whatever you play them on. But if you know that recording well from streaming it and it is that much better on a relatively simple vinyl rig, you are entitled to draw your conclusions.
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Or do just the opposite of ghd’s advice.
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The sound quality you retrieve from vinyl versus digital is competely dependent on your components. Spending more money on the correctly chosen digital will eliminate the difference in sound quality. Sometimes, it is just swapping components to get the same sound.
Unless you really like fiddling with vinyl and all the extra cost. I would sell your analog rig and carefully upgrade your digital rig to achieve the sound quality you want.
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The convenience of streaming is fantastic. The sound is great as well. Then you have that ONE record you play and it turns it all the way you describe. It's not every record. It's not EVERY time but it's real.
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