Hana SL Mono MC Cartridge

A true mono moving coil with a Shibata tip, built for the shelf of mono records that keeps growing — Blue Note reissues, sixties originals, new mono cuts. A mono cartridge reads only the lateral groove information, so the crackle and pressing flaws a stereo cartridge dutifully reproduces simply drop away. On mono records it is not a subtle difference.

Two practical notes. Output is 0.5 mV — low-output MC — so it needs a dedicated MC phono stage or step-up; a standard MM input won't wake it up. And the half-inch mount goes on any conventional headshell — ideally a spare one, so switching between stereo and mono takes seconds.