£3299 and already available at Audio Emotion
Seems to have dropped without fanfare, anyone heard anything?
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I knew there was one coming. It’d be interesting to hear how it compares with the Blue Etsuro that Excel also makes.
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Yes, and the Bordeaux
The one review I’ve seen seemed to me to describe the Cobalt as inhabiting the ballpark of the ML, different flavour, majoring somewhat on transparency v tonal body and weight that the ML delivers.
Is your French friend due to get one?
I’m sure he will. I’ll ask.
The Bordeaux Etsuro is a fabulous sounding thing, one of the nicest cartridges I’ve used.
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What arm was it on, I’ve seen talk that they have a preference for heavier?
I’ve used it in the StSt Vertex, SMEV and FR64S. It works nicely in all of those.
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That’s ok Guy but which one was best?
Of those 3 my preference would be between the Vertex (if I want to hear what’s on the record) or the FR if I want a sumptuous version of it. It also sounded good in the Groovemaster although my MK1 version isn’t as good an arm as either the FR or Vertex. Haven’t tried it in the 3012 although I suspect that would also work well.
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From what I’ve seen the Hana Umami (Red) is due for general release on 22nd September.
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Hi,
Nice looking cartridge. It will be good to hear that one in action.
The factory looks an interesting place.
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Not one of the better videos he has done, didn’t help I got motion sickness with all the jumping around. 
Shame as a more professionally produced video would be interesting especially to see the differences between how the medium and high end ranges are made.
So I got to hear a Umami today at the UK Audio Show. It’s quite hard to get an overall impression on a system you don’t know being played in a hotel room but that aside it sounded pretty amazing. The detail retrieval was hugely impressive. Financially a big jump from the ML at £3.4k but it sounded worthy of its price. Apparently a Blue one is on its way that sits around £2k. Should be interesting.
Was there too, speakers impressed me too, although every time I went back for a listen it was still Yello playing. We should have wore AA badges, I’d have covered for you whilst you nicked the stationary.
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I bought the SH and it was very disappointing, was hoping it would beat the 2M black or IQ3 but not even close.
Trying to go MM but it’s hard to rival the Io sound.
Was that in the Willow Tree Audio room with the Technics deck? Apparently there was another room using a Umami.
Yes, that was the one, room was probably too small I’d say, but impressive sound
High output moving coil cartridges. I’m yet to hear one I like.The advantage of an MC is thrown away by the extra weight of coils to be moved around.
With regard to an MM cartridge that challenges the best MCs, I haven’t heard any that do.
Not quite MM in the recognised sense the GE variable reluctance cartridges possibly can offer something as good but, as usual, there are a few things to learn about them, hoops to jump through. We need a manufacturer to do a modern one.
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That would seem to be a near impossible task for an MM?
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