atelier 13 audio
MUTECH HAYABUSA
Moving Coil Cartridge
Kanda Hayabusa
" This is a real giant killer cartridge resulting from an idea that formed in the mind of a great cartridge craftsman decades ago and then made a reality once the materials technologies were available. It will hold its own when compared to cartridges 2-3 times its price and can certainly be considered a true reference product. A paradigm shifting musical experience! "
About
Eiji Kanda was a legendary craftsman of audio transformers and MC Cartridges who had spent his career designing products for many well-known brands. He worked within the audio industry for many years and was highly respected, especially in the field of analog replay. Known for being a humble gentleman, he preferred to focus on his technical skills and stay out of the limelight.
However, in 2012, he officially established the MUTECH brand. He is known as the inventor of the yoke-less ring-magnet MC cartridge design which dates back to an idea that he conceived in the mid-1970s after a conversation with Mr. Kanda (original founder of MUTECH) and Mr. Asakura (founder of SUPEX).
His idea was to locate the core and coil material within the magnet of the motor, facilitated by a tiny square opening. This eliminated the need for a yoke, utilised the maximum power of the magnet and resulted in no disturbance of the magnetic flux.
This allowed the design to have fewer coil turns with very low impedance and high output. At the time there was no known material that could facilitate the design. Pure iron was unsuitable because of the saturation of magnetic force. After many years of research and metallurgy investigations, he developed a new material named ‘SS-μM’ ... μ is pronounced ‘MU’.
This discovery made it possible to build this cartridge design. The term ‘yoke-less’ refers to the absence of a traditional yoke in the design and the term ‘Ring Magnet’ refers to the shape of the magnet in the design.
The ideal of low impedance and high output is considered the holy grail of MC cartridge design and this was a ground-breaking design. These engineering attributes manifest sonically as incredible rendition of inner detail, the expression of very subtle timbral & spatial information as well as very low distortion and colouration.
The Hayabusa has instantly become a modern classic.
A paradigm shifting musical experience!
Key Cartridge Features
Brand new Generator developed by Eiji Kanda.
Low Impedance and High Output [ 0.45mV ] is achieved by placing the original Core (SS-μM) into Neodymium magnetic material.
The Yoke is removed, and direct placement of the Core into the Ring Magnet, results in magnetic distortion being eliminated.
The resulting impedance of the coil is so small, that the electric current to the voltage becomes high.
Unique custom-made suspension wire results in high sound quality.
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Electricity generating system
Yokeless Ring Magnet MC Cartridge
Output voltage
0.45mV ( 1kHz, 3.45cm/sec)
Tracking force range
1.8 - 2.0g
Frequency response
10 - 45,000Hz
Coil impedance
1.5Ω(DCR)
Cross Talk
> 30dB (1kHz)
Chanel balance
< 0.5db (1kHz)
Magnet
Neodymium#50
Stylus
semi-line contact stylus
Cantilever
φ0.3mm/nude boron
Terminal
Rhodium Plating
Weight
9g
$ 5,000
what they say ...
Image HiFi
German Review | May 2021
" ... I can only marvel at the insights this system gives me, and it clearly reminds me of the Lyra Atlas, which, by the way, is also constructed without a yoke but with a double magnet. Hayabusa and Atlas offer a view of the music like a reflective surface of the sea in glaring sunlight: breathtakingly beautiful and sometimes almost terrifyingly clear ... "
Stereophile | Analog Corner
Michael Fremer | 2019
" ... I took an immediate liking to the sound of this Japanese cartridge … The RM-Kanda makes use of the familiar combination of boron cantilever and nude semi-line-contact stylus (Ogura PA) found on other costly Japanese cartridges ... except that this isn’t a costly Japanese cartridge:
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MuTech, while not well known in the US, has been building cartridges - and supplying parts - for others for more than 50 years, and that ...
I was floored by the rich harmonic palette and the vividly three-dimensional picture … It certainly demonstrated both the MuTech RM-Kanda’s harmonic richness and flat full-range response ! ... "