Can tiny, little spike bases make an actual difference in a complex audio
system? I’d already known from experience that such accessories could
help to fine-tune the sound. One of the true master creators of suchproducts is Mr. Kazuo Kiuchi from Combak Corporation. In this review
I’ll try to answer if and what exactly his Harmonix RF-900M Million spikebases can do for your setup.

Introduction
There are certain stages of being an audiophile. There is the initial
enthusiasm, the discovery phase, if you will when one finds out that heror his favorite music can sound so much better when played using agood audio system. This phase is accompanied by a lack of experiencethat more often than not leads to spending a lot of money withoutachieving desired sonic effects. It seems easy – all you have to do is toread dozens of reviews and listen to pieces of advice given by otheraudiophiles (if they are people one knows personally they may be ofvalue, but those by anonymous audio forum users often aren’t worthmuch) and buy „the best components” one can afford. Easy, right? Not
quite. Not even when one copies the full setup of someone else, as there
is a huge factor of room acoustics and size, and some other factors that
do affect the sound.
The whole point, whether one just starts their adventure in the audiophileworld, or is already an advanced or experienced high-end soundaficionado, is that only careful selection of each component, as they allneed to work together in harmony, springs proper results. Newbies
though, often only after the fact, realize that buying some set ofcomponents even if each of them separately is „the best in its class”, oreven one that sounds great in some showroom, does not guarantee
satisfying results. Once that happens they move to the impulsive phaseand start to (sometimes chaotically) replace amplifiers, speakers,
sources, and cables with others spending even more money. Some ofthe purchases „improve sound”, and some others change its character
without actually making it better, yet still many of them don’t last long inthesystems.

And

the

story

goes

on

and

on.

So yes, being an audiophile is sort of a learning curve. One that, to behonest, keeps the audio industry’s wheels turning. My advice – in audiorush and impulses are bad advisers (same as random, all-knowing
forum users). It takes time and patience, and not necessarily tons ofmoney, to build a really good-sounding system, one that offers a truly
satisfying musical experience. Keep listening, discovering, and learning,and don’t make rush decisions. It will pay off. Also, once you get there
you will become an expert at least on your own setup. It will make iteasier to find efficient ways to improve its performance.
And now a twist… Having said all that, let me make it clear – thisparticular review is not for the newbies, not for those who try to find away to „save” the money they already spent, but rather for seasoned
audiophiles who have left the initial and impulsive phases long behind.
It is for those who had already meticulously built their setups and arehappy (!) with them. Still, as every audiophile, you probably keep looking
for ways to make the sound even better, and more satisfying, even if only
by a little bit. That’s where products such as the tuning spike bases (andother accessories) from Mr. Kiuchi, or in this case Harmonix RF-900M
Million, come in. They may help you to dot the „i” and cross the „t”.

Design and features
As the name suggests, RF-900M are bases or pads one places under
spikes. Spikes that speaker or other audio components are placed on,
to be exact. Mr. Kiuchi is a renowned and highly regarded figure in theaudiophile world. Many of us had a chance to experience an excellent
performance of his electronics, speakers, and cables, as well as an
impact on the sound that his numerous tuning accessories offer. Some
may not even know it, and others have even more reasons to appreciate
Mr. Kiuchi’s achievements, but he is also one of the men responsible forthe famous XRCD format. In other words, the hero of this story has beenworking for years on both sides of the proverbial glass – in the recordingand in the audio industry. I hope I don’t even have to add, that he is ahuge music lover himself.
While designing and developing almost all types of audio components,that is amplifiers, CD Players, speakers, and cables is not that surprising,adding all the anti-vibrations and tuning products to the mix may seemso, at least for some, as these are usually offered by specializedcompanies. Kiuchi-san though, believes in a holistic approach to audio
playback in which all the elements matter, where even tiny details may
improve the overall performance quality. As he said himself in one of theinterviews, he studied resonances and their effect on the sound ofmusical instruments for more than 30 years and learned a lot aboutsound reproduction in the process.
All this knowledge and experience he gained over the years he later usedwhile developing his products, both the „regular” audio components, andall the tuning accessories. The job of each of them is to make the soundbetter, more believable, more true, and more natural. One of them is the
Harmonix RF-900M Million that I am reviewing. If you never talked toprofessional musicians you may even not realize that they use various
accessories for their instruments to not necessarily improve (which
doesn’t exclude the possibility!), but surely to tune their sound. That’s
what Harmonix products, including the tested spike bases, are intended
to do for you and your system. They will allow you to „fine-tune” thesound of the audio component they are used with. In this case, it means
allowing them to perform at their best, eliminating restricting factors(resonances and vibrations). That is also why the lineup proposed by theJapanese company is quite large so that one could choose the productthat

serves

one’s

needs

best.

As one reads in the leaflet accompanying RF-900M, they are handmadeby the maestro himself of wood and metal. Both materials were carefully
selected for their ability to „transform and balance resonances”. That is
actually the goal of each of Kiuchi-san’s tuning accessories. After all, thesound is vibrations, and it’s transferred through vibrations of air
particles from instruments or speakers to our ears (or microphone whenrecording). So any additional, unwanted vibration, and remember that
not only everything around us resonates, but also vibrations from one
source are transferred to the other ones in its vicinity, is harmful to thesound as it is causing some sort of distortion. When distortion is
introduced to the sound it loses its naturalness and that’s what we liketo avoid, don’t we?
For years Mr. Kiuchi has been developing accessories that combine
materials of various own resonance frequencies which allows them toenhance the performance of audio components placed (usually) on
them. Like in most cases, the designer doesn’t share his hard-earned

know-how, his secrets. So we don’t know what type of metal and wood
was used. All one can see is that the lower part is made of wood, andthe one that actually hosts a spike, is made of metal. This makes sense– spikes are usually made of metal so a wooden bed would be quickly
damaged by a sharp tip. The softer wood, on the other hand, is a better
material for direct interaction with a surface, floor/platform/rack, as it
won’t damage it.
In the aforementioned leaflet one can read that the RF-900M can beused alone or in combination with other Harmonix products so that,through synergy effect, they could even further enhance theperformance of one’s system. For example, one may choose Harmonix’s
own spikes, REI-168, and combine them with RF-900M. Taking thingseven further, one can place the latter on top of additional TU-333EX pads.
Customers are advised to take matters into their own hands andexperiment with their setups in search of a solution optimized for their
particular setup/environment.
They can also ask the maestro for advice. His huge experience allows
him to suggest the best solution based on a list of components in thesystem even if he can’t listen to the particular setup himself. Yet, when
given a chance, Kiuchi-san is able to significantly improve performanceeven of an already good-sounding system by suggesting proper tuning
accessories. I witnessed it a few times when he visited Audio Video
Show in Warsaw and his final touches to already really good-sounding
setups prepared by the experienced distributor always produced
welcomed results. Sometimes all it took was swapping places between

already used accessories, sometimes it required adding some more.

For this test though, I received two sets, four pieces each, of theHarmonix RF-900M Million alone. They are quite small with a maximum
diameter of 32mm and a height of only 13mm (the top rim of the spike’sbed). The quality of make and finish, and the aesthetic beauty resulting
from them are stunning. It’s a shame that after placing them under
speakers/components one probably won’t even see them anymore.
Before you try them out yourself remember that the maximum
recommended load for a set is around 80kg. If you have even heavier
speakers or components you want to fine-tune using Harmonix products
you should select another spike base from the lineup, which is better
suited for a more significant load.

Sound
When the Polish distributor, Audio Atelier, contacted me proposing RF900M Million for a review I had to think hard and long about how would
I even conduct such a test. The point is that none of my two pairs ofspeakers feature spikes (and I wouldn’t b able to add any even if I
wanted to) so these tuning bases would be useless for them. Then I
realized that I could place my DAC, LampizatOr Pacific, or ESE Lab
phonostage on spikes and use RF-900M under them, although thatwould be sort of a forced test, as I don’t use spikes for my phonostage,and I use Graphite Audio cones for Pacific DAC, but these are made of
special material that works best alone. And then the distributor offeredto deliver Xavian Aria for another review at the same time (you can findthe Polish version HERE). These are stand-mount loudspeakers andsince I have the excellent ALPINE-line stands from Vertico line at mydisposal, and they feature spikes on both ends (at the very bottom
supporting the whole stand, and also on the top plate, directly under
speakers) I knew I could use them for this test too. After getting to know
them well, that is.
That’s actually how I performed the assessment. First I placed speakers
directly on reversed Harmonix bases (as spikes on the top platform
point up not down), and then the whole stands on RF-900M (replacing
standard metal bases). Admittedly, the former way of using RF-900M
may be a little unorthodox but… it worked quite well. Before we get tothe specifics let me emphasize once more – the tested Harmonix
product is to be used to fine-tune/improve the already good-sounding
setup, and not to introduce some groundbreaking changes to its
performance or to magically transform a poor one into a great one – itdoesn’t work this way! So all the changes I will describe are actuallyrather small, some even subtle. Yet, for those who know the sound of
their system like the palm of their hand, in many cases, they may besignificant enough to make them worth the asking price as going back

to

the

sound

without

RF-900M

may

be

too

painful.

The first impression (with reversed bases directly under the speakers)
was that of an even bit deeper soundstage. I was listening to the Cafe
Zimmermann interpretation of J.S. Bach music („The Imaginary Music
Book of J.S. Bach”) recorded in a church in Mulhouse, France. It seemed
to me that the RF-900M allowed the speakers to even better reproduce
the ambiance of the great hall and improved the imaging and focus of
the sound of each instrument. What followed was a greater clarity of thesound, a better insight, if you will, into the intricacies of the performance,and even greater transparency that made it easier to study eachperformance separately, to uncover tiny details and subtleties.
Taking the RF-900M later out from under the speakers didn’t break myheart, so to speak, but once knowing the sound achieved with them, theperformance without seemed just a little bit less satisfying. It wasn’t
actually much worse, I didn’t really feel that there was something
significant missing. It was more about this nagging thought, that with
Harmonix RF-900M Million the performance would be a touch more

natural and realistic, that I could hear a little more with them, or in otherwords, that the presentation would be more accurate and more natural.
Importantly, while adding these Harmonix accessories made it easier toreach for tiny details, and improved their clarity, the performance as awhole remained beautifully coherent, natural, and had this beautiful flow,same as without them. If anything, the flow was even smoother and theoverall impression of being a part of the musical event presented in frontof me was even a bit more convincing. In other words, RF-900M did notchange the overall character of the presentation but only improved orfine-tuned some of its elements making it more „real”, and more„present”. The change was subtle but welcomed as the sound becamea touch more refined, and richer, offering a touch more of that „here andnow” feeling.
Next, I removed the Harmonic RF-900M Million completely for a while,
trying to get used back to the sound without them, that I’d known before.
It took me a while but finally, I almost forgot about the improvement
brought in by Japanese accessories. That’s when I put them under thewhole ALPINE-line stands where they replaced the original, larger, metalonly spike bases. This approach made their influence on the sound more

prominent,

andeasierto

spot.

This time the spatial aspect of the presentation, although also improved,
wasn’t the first thing that caught my ear. With the original spike bases,
Xavian speakers sounded (in comparison!) more direct, and more
forward (emphasize on „more” as they didn’t really sound forward). With
the Harmonix ones, the sound became more relaxed, slightly laid back,and less forward (in comparison!). I guess, one could call thepresentation „softer” or „gentler” but it wasn’t really the case as, forexample, Spyro Gyra’s „Fast Forward” album proved quickly. The reallytight, fast beat did not soften one bit, and the brass instruments were ascrisp as ever, and, I thought, even a little bit more resolving and soundedeven more open. Maybe only the midrange, say saxophone, soundedslightly richer, more saturated, and deeper, hence projecting the ‘softer’and ‘warmer’ overall impression. It doesn’t mean though, that it was too
soft, that its sound was colored – it wasn’t! It, simply put, sounded morenatural with its timbre deepened and texture more detailed.

What improved with this use of the Harmonix bases under the stands
was also the clarity of the presentation. It became a bit more orderly,
more focused, so everything had an even more precisely describedplace and form on the soundstage, and in the mix. It was true evendespite the fact that now I perceived the performance more as acoherent, smooth whole with the sounds of individual instrumentsintertwining and interacting more closely than before, and less as
several instruments performing one next to the other, which reminded
me even more of a live performance. It’s not that without RF-900M
Million I had several separate performances, but that with tested
products it became even more cohesive, more live-like.
The features that audiophiles are usually after, I mean separation,differentiation, and precise imaging, are not really part of how one
perceives live music when participating in a concert. Hence Harmonix
RF-900M’s influence on performance was so unique – there was a touch
better clarity and transparency, higher precision, and better insight into
the deeper layers of the recording, and yet overall they ensured an evenmore ‘cohesive’ way of presenting music, more live-like in this regard.
Also because it seemed to me that energy transfer between musicians
and listeners improved a little. And the energy level is what makes live
performance superior to even the best recordings.
To be clear, by more live-like I mean more like acoustic concerts, nothuge rock ones. Because when listening later to the, say, AC/DC’s „Live”,
or even the black album by Metallica I preferred the original spike bases,
as they served more direct, maybe even a bit more aggressive (at leastin comparison), and less refined or in other words more ‘raw’
presentation that suited this genre better than the ‘tuned’, more relaxedsound with RF-900M. Although… what happened when using Harmonix
also meant that all the imperfections such as a bit too bright and harshand grainy treble, for example, were slightly less irritating, which was aclear upside of the tested spike bases in rock and metal, and even some

pop music. So ultimately, the choice is yours. It will depend on thesystem, personal preferences, and music choices, although, in general,the higher quality recordings should sound better with Harmonix RF900M. You can find out whether Harmonix RF-900M Million is a product
for

you

only

if

you

try

it

out.

Summary
If you’re hoping for a miracle, for Harmonix RF-900M Million to „fix” what
doesn’t work in your setup and turn a poor sound into a great one, you’llmost likely be disappointed. As I’ve mentioned before, this is a „tuning”
accessory, something that can improve performance a little but only analready good one! It is one of the last investments your system shouldneed after everything else is already well-matched. Once every otheraspect is taken care of, you should reach for the Harmonix spike bases(and possibly other tuning products from their lineup) and check
whether they can improve or fine-tune an already very good sound.
Because that’s their job – to turn a very good or even great sound into

an even bit greater one by revealing the setup’s full potential. I loved
what they did for not-very-expensive Xavian Aria speakers that werepaired with significantly more expensive components (than themselves).
So I can only imagine what Harmonix RF-900M Million could do for evenmore expensive speakers or components.
There is no magic to it, it’s all about tuning resonances that influence
what you hear from your speakers. If you look for ways to get an evenmore natural, more realistic, more relaxing, and more satisfying
performance give Harmonix RF900M Million, or other Harmonix
accessories for that matter, a try. They look great and their subtle yet
hard-to-live-without-once-you-get-the-taste

influenceontheperformance may be what you need to fully enjoy the music. Don’t takemy word for it, but try them yourselves! Kudos to Kiuchi-san for yet
another “little wonder” that makes a very good system sound even betterand listening to music even more pleasant and satisfying.