SUT's -Looking for one with some meat on the bones

@mckinneymike I agree 100% with your evaluation and can confirm from my own listening experience.  I compared the D7s directly against Classic 100s, same room, same system, same (long) afternoon, same music.  For me, the Classic 100s were significantly superior; there was, as the saying goes, a lot more "there, there", and the highs were perfectly integrated in the whole.

almarg,

I am using an Allnic 1201 at this time.  No SUT at this time.

The one technical issue I see in pairing the Allnic 1201 with the Hana SL is a relatively minor one, I believe, and one that I suspect is probably not a significant contributor to the specific sonic issues you have described. But it further reinforces the notion that using an external SUT is not the way to go in trying to resolve those issues.

Specifically, the cartridge specs provide a minimum load impedance recommendation of 400 ohms. If you are using the lowest gain setting of the 1201’s built-in SUTs (22 db) the cartridge will be presented with a load impedance of 280 ohms, well under the minimum recommendation. And if you are using any of the higher gain settings of the built-in SUTs that load impedance will be even lower.

And a similar situation would most likely arise if you were to use an external SUT which provides sufficient gain for your 0.5 mv cartridge.

So that is one more reason why as others have suggested it would be best to pursue other approaches to resolving the issue.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al

@almarg  makes a good point here as I know this Hana SL cart pretty well.  My phono stage provides 43dB gain and then I add 18dB with my SUT to bring it up to 61dB. I set the load right at 400 ohms and it sounds fabulous.  I can attest that it sounds pretty lousy at anything below 400 ohms.

My wife runs from the room when I try to spin any LP's.  

LOL :)