Hana SL MK II MC Cartridge Setup Recommendations and Question

Hello all -

Newb question here on setup of Hana SL MK II MC cartridge and what people would recommend for settings. I haven't had a turntable for decades, and the type of equipment I am using now is very new to me, so I have a few questions to verify setup and what others might recommend.

Setup:

• Technics SL 1200GR2
• Mcintosh C55 Preamp
• Revel Salon2 Speakers

Current Settings In Preamp:

• Load Impedance = 400 ohms
• Capacitance = 50pF (Not really relevant for this cartridge, but this is the lowest this setting will go in the preamp)
• Gain Db level = 64

After playing with these settings all weekend, I think this sounds pretty good. I am noticing to play at the levels I like I am turning the preamp volume up 50%-55% or more. Understanding the Hana cartridge is low output, is this normal to have to turn the volume up this high?

I am curious if others are running this cartridge what they are using for settings and how this might compare with their experience?

Thanks in advance for help. I appreciate it.

Perrin2025 said:

Hello all -

Newb question here on setup of Hana SL MK II MC cartridge and what people would recommend for settings. I haven't had a turntable for decades, and the type of equipment I am using now is very new to me, so I have a few questions to verify setup and what others might recommend.

Setup:

• Technics SL 1200GR2
• Mcintosh C55 Preamp
• Revel Salon2 Speakers

Current Settings In Preamp:

• Load Impedance = 400 ohms
• Capacitance = 50pF (Not really relevant for this cartridge, but this is the lowest this setting will go in the preamp)
• Gain Db level = 64

After playing with these settings all weekend, I think this sounds pretty good. I am noticing to play at the levels I like I am turning the preamp volume up 50%-55% or more. Understanding the Hana cartridge is low output, is this normal to have to turn the volume up this high?

I am curious if others are running this cartridge what they are using for settings and how this might compare with their experience?

Thanks in advance for help. I appreciate it.

Click to expand...

Not a Hana owner but… looks like you have the preamp’s gain set to its maximum. Make sure you are plugged into the MC input or switched to MC. Standard rule of thumb is setting cartridge loading at ten times its internal resistance, so 80 would be about ideal but 100 would be just fine. Looking at the pre’s specs I see only one option and that is 22k ohms. You said you have it set to 400 ohms so either I’m not seeing something in the specs or it was left out at the Mac website. Anyway, as long as turning the volume up a bit more than previously isn’t a problem I’d say everything is working as it should. Lower cartridge output will have the effect you are describing. Happy listening!

OMC said:

Not a Hana owner but… looks like you have the preamp’s gain set to its maximum. Make sure you are plugged into the MC input or switched to MC. Standard rule of thumb is setting cartridge loading at ten times its internal resistance, so 80 would be about ideal but 100 would be just fine. Looking at the pre’s specs I see only one option and that is 22k ohms. You said you have it set to 400 ohms so either I’m not seeing something in the specs or it was left out at the Mac website. Anyway, as long as turning the volume up a bit more than previously isn’t a problem I’d say everything is working as it should. Lower cartridge output will have the effect you are describing. Happy listening!

Click to expand...

Thanks so much for the great response. Sounds like I am heading in the right direction at this point.

To your point about the gain, you are right that is the highest setting on the C55. I messed around with listening to the same material for a while and found that it sounded best to me. My biggest concern was that might be too high, but upon doing more research looks like that is OK for that cartridge.

There doesn't appear to be an official MC setting in the C55, so you just adjust the various settings on the applicable phono input based on what type of cartridge you are running. This caused some confusion for me when setting up as I was expecting there to be a specific option titled MC or MM to set the phono input to, but after talking to Mac's Support that appears to not be the case.

Yeah, it appears it goes 400, 1000, and then 47K as the impedance limit. I stopped at 400ohms as that sounded pretty good to me, but might try some other options to see what it sounds like.

The preamp and phono stuff is still pretty new to me so still learning the ins and outs, but thanks again for the great feedback.

Like @OMC said, as long as you’re not getting audible distortion or degradation of the audio when turning the volume up, it’s not an issue. You may want to check if the Mac has a gain setting for different inputs, these are used to make different source components operate at similar volume levels. A lot of pre’s don’t, but that C55 has a lot of features.

SnowmaNick said:

Like @OMC said, as long as you’re not getting audible distortion or degradation of the audio when turning the volume up, it’s not an issue. You may want to check if the Mac has a gain setting for different inputs, these are used to make different source components operate at similar volume levels. A lot of pre’s don’t, but that C55 has a lot of features.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. I have verified the specific gain settings for the applicable phono input so I think I am good. It is at the highest setting of 64dB, but based on your post and @OMC there is no distortion or degradation of the sound so I think i am good.

As an aside, it's been interesting to try and setup, configure, and tweak things based on the manuals from Mcintosh, various great communities like this one, and various AI LLMs. The LLMs are just wrong about quite a few things at this point. Having said that, it has given me some great insights into things to look for and breaking down audio concepts I was not familiar with.

Anyway, thanks again for the feedback. It's a great help. I am going to spend this weekend tweaking some of the settings just to make sure I am where i want to be.

Perrin2025 said:

Yeah, it appears it goes 400, 1000, and then 47K as the impedance limit. I stopped at 400ohms as that sounded pretty good to me, but might try some other options to see what it sounds like.

Click to expand...

First off, welcome!! You got some great advice so far, as to your load setting, while not the MK II, try it at 1000. I've have my SL LO set at 800 and it's perfection.

Enjoy

AnthonyI said:

First off, welcome!! You got some great advice so far, as to your load setting, while not the MK II, try it at 1000. I've have my SL LO set at 800 and it's perfection.

Enjoy

View attachment 232701

Click to expand...

Thanks so much for the great feedback. I will try this tonight. I was going to mess with adjustments on the turntable over the weekend but ended doing some cabling upgrades, and finalizing some of the settings on my music streamer. It's slowly getting dialed in, but is taking some time. That's half the fun though, so was a fun weekend to mess around and see where I landed.

I will let you know what results I get after I test these changes.

I am assuming you played with your phono settings in your system. Curious what you hear at 800ohms versus the other options that are available? Just trying to get an idea of what to look for, and what others are seeing in their testing.

Thanks again.

Perrin2025 said:

Thanks so much for the great feedback. I will try this tonight. I was going to mess with adjustments on the turntable over the weekend but ended doing some cabling upgrades, and finalizing some of the settings on my music streamer. It's slowly getting dialed in, but is taking some time. That's half the fun though, so was a fun weekend to mess around and see where I landed.

I will let you know what results I get after I test these changes.

I am assuming you played with your phono settings in your system. Curious what you hear at 800ohms versus the other options that are available? Just trying to get an idea of what to look for, and what others are seeing in their testing.

Thanks again.

Click to expand...

Been a while, but my recollection is that there was a bit more "air" to the sound, it was fuller sound? All comes down to personal preference, the chain and your ears of course

Perrin2025 said:

Thanks so much for the great feedback. I will try this tonight. I was going to mess with adjustments on the turntable over the weekend but ended doing some cabling upgrades, and finalizing some of the settings on my music streamer. It's slowly getting dialed in, but is taking some time. That's half the fun though, so was a fun weekend to mess around and see where I landed.

I will let you know what results I get after I test these changes.

I am assuming you played with your phono settings in your system. Curious what you hear at 800ohms versus the other options that are available? Just trying to get an idea of what to look for, and what others are seeing in their testing.

Thanks again.

Click to expand...

My memory of it was that it made the highs a bit more detailed and added a balance to the cartridges sound.

That said the SL MkI was rated as a loading of 400ohms or greater and the SL MkII is 100ohms or greater. No harm can be done from going higher but it might overemphasise those characteristics.

AnthonyI said:

Been a while, but my recollection is that there was a bit more "air" to the sound, it was fuller sound? All comes down to personal preference, the chain and your ears of course

Click to expand...

Yeah, makes total sense. My friends always tell me I prefer too much bass emphasis in my music sound, which I do. So I am currently trying to curtail it now for better sound, but my general preference is I love to hear the bass. So I hear what you're saying about personal preference playing a big role in adjustments too.

Thanks again. I'll report back on what I find out after messing around tonight.

Joe Mac said:

My memory of it was that it made the highs a bit more detailed and added a balance to the cartridges sound.

That said the SL MkI was rated as a loading of 400ohms or greater and the SL MkII is 100ohms or greater. No harm can be done from going higher but it might overemphasise those characteristics.

Click to expand...

From what I have been reading that was my concern too. I generally don't like overactive highs when playing music. It tends to fatigue my ears after a short amount of time.

I'll give it a go and A/B it with 400ohms/1000ohms and see where I land. Thanks for the feedback though. Helps to know what I am looking for going in from other's experience.

Joe Mac said:

My memory of it was that it made the highs a bit more detailed and added a balance to the cartridges sound.

That said the SL MkI was rated as a loading of 400ohms or greater and the SL MkII is 100ohms or greater. No harm can be done from going higher but it might overemphasise those characteristics.

Click to expand...

Did not realize the loading had changed on the new model.

Perrin2025 said:

Hello all -

Newb question here on setup of Hana SL MK II MC cartridge and what people would recommend for settings. I haven't had a turntable for decades, and the type of equipment I am using now is very new to me, so I have a few questions to verify setup and what others might recommend.

Setup:

• Technics SL 1200GR2
• Mcintosh C55 Preamp
• Revel Salon2 Speakers

Current Settings In Preamp:

• Load Impedance = 400 ohms
• Capacitance = 50pF (Not really relevant for this cartridge, but this is the lowest this setting will go in the preamp)
• Gain Db level = 64

After playing with these settings all weekend, I think this sounds pretty good. I am noticing to play at the levels I like I am turning the preamp volume up 50%-55% or more. Understanding the Hana cartridge is low output, is this normal to have to turn the volume up this high?

I am curious if others are running this cartridge what they are using for settings and how this might compare with their experience?

Thanks in advance for help. I appreciate it.

Click to expand...

Long time Hana SL user here. Specs from the users manual below.



Critical changes involve increased mass to 8.6 grams, reduced turns of coil wire for 8 ohms, improved cantilever via shape with resulting tip mass reduction, brass threaded mounting plate, and cryo treatment. Output is reduced from 0.5 millivolts to 0.4 which implies more powerful magnets to compensate - not completely for less turns of wire. I run mine at 62 db at 0.5 millivolts, your gain of 64 db is fine from a spec point of view. Loading at 80 ohms or greater is the usual 10 times the source resistance. One should remember that on moving coils we are primarily looking at resistance of the coils as the primary component. Unlike moving magnets, which have lots of inductance, the load resistor is more of a simple voltage divider than a RLC resonance component. This means it primarily changes output level, with the high gain offered by a MC phono preamp, becomes louder at higher value load resistors. Our brains will consistently judge louder play back, all other variables being equal, as the "better" sound. Don't over obsess over loading! Get your alignments correct and enjoy some music.
Congratulations on your new cartridge!

Bob from Florida said:

Long time Hana SL user here. Specs from the users manual below.

View attachment 232826

Critical changes involve increased mass to 8.6 grams, reduced turns of coil wire for 8 ohms, improved cantilever via shape with resulting tip mass reduction, brass threaded mounting plate, and cryo treatment. Output is reduced from 0.5 millivolts to 0.4 which implies more powerful magnets to compensate - not completely for less turns of wire. I run mine at 62 db at 0.5 millivolts, your gain of 64 db is fine from a spec point of view. Loading at 80 ohms or greater is the usual 10 times the source resistance. One should remember that on moving coils we are primarily looking at resistance of the coils as the primary component. Unlike moving magnets, which have lots of inductance, the load resistor is more of a simple voltage divider than a RLC resonance component. This means it primarily changes output level, with the high gain offered by a MC phono preamp, becomes louder at higher value load resistors. Our brains will consistently judge louder play back, all other variables being equal, as the "better" sound. Don't over obsess over loading! Get your alignments correct and enjoy some music.
Congratulations on your new cartridge!

Click to expand...

Thanks for this great breakdown, and the advice. This actually helped a lot, and in the end I think you are right. I am way over-obsessing about "getting it right," when I probably should just sit down and enjoy it for a while.

I am still learning how to use my new gear. This is pretty consistent with my personality, as I want to understand everything yesterday. But I think living with it for a while will be a good thing. Thanks again!!

I did some testing last night with my wife and tried 200ohms, 400ohms, and 1000ohms on multiple records to test the output at the different impedance levels. In all testing we made sure to keep the volume at the same levels for each impedance setting for each song being tested.

My wife and I have come to the conclusion we both have terrible ears, as with only a few exceptions it sounded pretty similar. Maybe to @Bob from Florida point. It was still a lot of fun just to mess around and hang out, so that was cool. Here is what we heard in our testing:

The Black Stallion soundtrack by Carmine Coppola - This was the most obvious difference at 1000ohms for both of us. We both felt the sound opened up more at the high end, also testing at the same volumes against 200ohms and 400ohms. We thought it sounded better and exposed more of the classical music detail.

The War On Drugs - Strangest Thing, I Don't Wanna Wait, and I Don't Live Here Anymore - With all these songs we felt the 400ohm setting sounded like it had more bass and low end, filling in those spaces in those songs better for us. We noticed the reverb in some of the songs better at this setting, where the 1000ohm setting seemed louder but lost some of that detail for us. My wife especially noticed this as she knows these songs really well.

Ethel Cain - Gibson Girl and A House In Nebraska - We got the same response in these songs as what we noticed with The War On Drugs. I know this album pretty well, and I thought it lost a lot of the low end at 1000ohms, which is very important for this record as it's very dark tonally.

We came to the conclusion that maybe the 1000ohm impedance setting would be best for classical music, and anything orchestra based? While other genres like rock and EDM might be better served at 400ohms?

I think for now we're gonna follow this logic and leave it at 400ohms for rock, and when I play anything classical like The Black Stallion ST, Barber, or The Four Seasons I will switch to 1000ohms.