Hana SH vs ortafon 2m Black

Gary-
I have partial experience- but with the Hana EH.
I own a Technics 1210-M5G- had a Denon DL-110 that I grew tired of. I bought a Hana EH. This is all running through my Yamaha RX-A1030 Receiver.

I was immediately floored by just how much sweeter everything sounded. I had AIR, I had separation, I had quiet background, and felt it was an order of magnitude increase in music enjoyment.

Within a couple of weeks- I got a sweet deal on a VPI Scout 1.1(one year old) with Ortofon 2M Black. I was immediately let down as the VPI/2M Black had no life, no separation, and felt dull. I was not too worried- as I felt I needed to understand its alignment, and I was running JUNK interconnects. I have not had the time to play with alignment, BUT I did replace the cables with Blue Jeans- and noticed a huge difference. It was now enjoyable to listen to my table again. Things were no longer dull, and I have decent separation.

I am really comparing apples to oranges- as these 2 cartridges are running on two different tables. Even though the VPI/2M Black combo now sounds great- I feel I got a bigger kick(in musical enjoyment) out of the Hana EH.

I forgot to mention the Hana was very quiet wrt bringing forward ticks and pops compared to the Denon. Along similar lines- the 2M Black is known to be a very revealing cartridge(warts and all) on less than perfect vinyl. I was quite surprised to not hear a lot of imperfections on some of my vinyl.

What I really want to do- is to bring the Hana over to the VPI- but until I have any experience with alignment on the VPI- I'm not touching it.

Chris

Bimasta: Apology accepted; very big of you to walk that back. Actually we share some of the same concerns. As I grow older, I've become more vigilant over confusing my opinions with verifiable facts or at least reasonably likely theories.

I've come to realize that being highly opinionated is not the same as being knowledgeable, and much of what passes for reasoning is simply wishful thinking. The latter is often bolstered by the wisps of "evidence" of dubious veracity that you mentioned, which are gleaned from various audio forums.

I also share some of your pet peeves, particularly a condescending attitude. As a career editor, I (usually) restrain myself from correcting grammar, and correcting someone with ESL is simply bullying. I figure if his English is better than my Spanish, Chinese, Portugese, French, etc. (I speak none of those languages) I have absolutely no room to cop an attitude about mastery of such an inconsistent and confounding language.

There are are some good videos on You Tube for setting up and adjusting your scout. I did mine for the first time and got it pretty close. The Hana needed a little extra weight on the head shell to adjust the tone arm weight properly. If thats the case on yours you will need to buy a screw kit for 7 bucks on amazon. The set up was  pretty easy to do. (No caffine) So my Hana sounds good but it needs a big boost in gain going into my tube amp I talked to parks audio as snackeyp suggested. The step up transformer  is only $340. Which is much cheaper then the 2m black and in theory puts me right where I want to be to utilize the full power of my amp.  Thanks again for the good advice keep it coming. If I get the SUT anytime soon I will post the results.

I just got my October 2017 issue of Stereophile, which has their semi-annual "Recommended Components" feature. 

This month, the $475 Hana EL is solidly in the Class B group of cartridges. Most of the other Class B cartridges range from $799 to $1200, with the Ortofon SPUs at $599-659, and some others that hit $8500-9995. The only Class B cartridge below the Hana's price is the base model Zu Audio DL-103, which now retails at $459 (just $16 less than the Hana), and hasn't been reviewed by S'phile for 11 years.

Also, the Ortofon 2M Black at $755 has slipped to Class C status and sits right next to the 2M Blue at 1/3 the price. That's not to say that the Blue is just as good, but when the 2M series came out, the Black with its Shibata was considered the standout. Also, that seems to be the product release that resurrected the Shibata on a large scale. 

I have an Audio Technica AT150MLX, which originally came with a MicroLine stylus. When the MicroLine became harder to find a year ago, I replaced it with AT's new Shibata, so now it's an AT150Sa, and I like it better--smoother yet detailed and organic-sounding treble, and it seems to track the inner groove better, though maybe I got lucky on the alignment this time around.

I have the budgie SUT 10 hooked up now for a few weeks. Its given my hana quite a big boost in gain which now sounds a lot more aggressive and is no longer on the thin side and still remains smooth and quiet.