MUTECH

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!