Interconnect and speaker cable

聖 Hijiri
HCI-R10 + HCS-25
Manufacturer: COMBAK CORPORATION
Price (when reviewed):
HCI-R10 – 3790 PLN/1m
HCS-25 – 8690 PLN/2.5m
Contact:
Kazuo Kiuchi ǀ 4-20, Ikego 2-chome, Zushi-shi
Kanagawa 249-0003 ǀ Japan
harmonix@combak.net
combak.net
MADE IN JAPANProvided for test by: MOJE AUDIO

udio companies usually showcase their best, and also themost expensive products. These present company's fullpotential, its best techniques and technologies, and can also appear as
sort of "totem" driven into the ground occupied by tribes worshiping
high quality sound.

H = Hijiri, C = Cable, I = Interconnect, and S = Speaker. The numbers, inturn, tell us the lengths: 10 = 1 m, 25 = 2.5 m.
It should not come as a surprise either that Mr. Kiuchi is reluctant todisclose information regarding materials and technologies behind hisnew products. Not because they are not important. It is rather that hewants us to pay attention to the music, to the sound, and to hide thetechnical aspects behind them. For every test I ask him for a few wordsabout the design, after all we have known each other for years. Although
every now and then he unravels some small piece of information, I still
end up only with only basic knowledge of a product plus whatever I canfind out by looking at and touching the new product.
So we know is that these are directional cables made of copper ofhigh purity. All previous Harmonix and 聖 Hijiri products were made of
PCOCC copper, so possibly this is also the case. Or not - as we know thistype of conductors are no longer produced, so cable manufacturers mustlook for new types. We do know, however, that connectors of bothinterconnect and loudspeaker cables were made of this type ofcopper. Interconnects feature PCOCC rhodium plated copper, used forcontact elements, with brass, gold-plated housing. In turn, the spades
are gold- and rhodium-plated.

It is no different with the Japanese brand 聖 Hijiri, belonging to theCombak Corporation and created by Mr. Kazuo Kiuchi (the company alsouses the name Hijiri without the Japanese character, but the official one
name and logotype combine this character with its English transcription).
Initially, 聖 Hijiri was simply the name of Nagomi X-DCHinterconnect,
but it soon turned out that it was the first product introducing a newbrand. Today it includes analogue RCA and XLR interconnects, digital
cable and loudspeaker cables as well as power cables.

| HCI-R10 + HCS-25
聖 Hijiri in Japanese means 'maestro' or 'important leader'. No wonderthat the brand's showcase products are marked with the name "Million",
which was taken from the Harmonix sister brand - 聖 Hijiri seems to be
its successor. Kiuchi-san devoted much attention to these products
which in this context may be considered "inexpensive", I mean theHCI and HCS models. Deciphering of these abbreviations seems simple:

The cables have a small diameter and you can see that, for example, inthe outer PVC braid jacket of the speaker cable, there are two separate
conductor runs. The balanced XLR interconnects are simply twoconcentric unbalanced interconnects placed inside one sleeve - that's
why the price of the XLR version is almost twice as high as that of theRCA. The cables are quite stiff considering the diameter, but I had noproblems connecting components with them. HCI and HCS are available
in several standard lengths – 0.75 m up to 3 m (IC), and 1.5 to 3 m (SC).
And one more thing - packaging. This is the Achilles heel of many
manufacturers. Even very expensive products often come in mediocre, oreven ugly and non-functional boxes. Mr. Kiuchi coped with this issue ina unique way. The most expensive Hijiri cables are delivered in wooden
boxes decorated by Japanese artists. In turn, HCI and HCS models comein cardboard boxes, but they look like gifts - and that's how one feels
when unpacking them. Boxes could be produced somewhere in Europe,
but they are not - they are distinguished by details such as: texture,
typical Japanese patterns, as well as rice paper the cables are wrapped ininside boxes.

for all markets in Japan, as well as the powerful performance of this
instrument on the The Boss album, released by Mr. Kiuchi not only onvinyl, but also on the CD XRCD24, were presented in a way that was agenerally accepted compromise between what is possible in home
Interconnects connected the Ayon Audio CD-35 High Fidelity Edition
Super Audio CD player and the Ayon Audio Spheris III preamplifier. They
were compared to the Siltech Triple Crown and Acoustic Revive RCA-1.0
Absolute-FM interconnects.

conditions and what needs to be conveyed to listeners.

The speaker cables connected the Soulution 710 power amplifier and theHarbeth M40.1 loudspeakers and were compared to the Siltech Triple
Crown speaker cables. In both cases it was a A/B/A comparison with theA and B known. The music samples were up to 2 minutes long, but I also
listened to the whole albums.
HARMONIX | HIJIRI in „High Fidelity”

Recordings used for the test (a selec- tion)Bach, Violin Concertos, Yehudi Menuhin, EMI/Hi-Q Records
HIQXRCD9, XRCD24, CD (1960/2013)
Carol King, Tapestry, Ode Records/Epic/Sony Music Labels SICP10120, 7” SACD/CD (1971/2017)
Depeche Mode A Broken Frame, Mute/Warner-Pioneer
Corporation 18P2-2676, CD (1982/1989)
HotS, Harmony of the Spheres, V-Records 377083, CD (2015);
Mayo Nakano Piano Trio, Sentimental Reasons, Briphonic BRPN7006GL, Extreme Hard Glass CD-R (2017);
Peter Gabriel, So, Realworld/Virgin SAPGCD5, SACD/CD(1987/2003)
Seiichi Nakamura Quintet + 2, The Boss, Master Music XRCD24NT014, XRCD24 (2014)
Japanese issues available at| HCI-10
The HCI-10 interconnect is, for its price, an incredibly resolving cable.
The comparison with much more expensive reference cables shows, ofcourse, that ultimately it comes from another price level, and yet what I
remembered after listening session was a sensation of amazing richnessof the sound, when 聖 Hijiri was used. These are very smooth cables
focused on conveying proper timbre of the sound.
The center of gravity is set slightly higher with them than with thereference cables, i.e. closer to the mid-tones in the 800Hz - 1kHz range.
It results in an open sound that is still smooth and even "sweet". It is
not really very sweet, but I want to draw your attention to the fact thatthe cymbals on Peter Gabriel's SACD edition of So from 2003, produced

My point is that compromises necessary while reproducing music athome, i.e. reduced dynamics – the 120dB of a large symphonicorchestra would cause permanent hearing loss - a smaller sound stageand other elements, were not emphasized by this interconnect. Maybe
that's why I had an impression that there was nothing missing and that
it was a complete sound. This, I believe, is a trademark of Combak
Corporation products - smoothness combined with openness. We pay
for this with not fully extended bass and focusing attention on theelements closer to us, while what is at the back of the stage is lessselective and auxiliary to what is right in front of us.

| HCS-25
Speaker cable behaves very similarly, which should not be surprising –they were prepared by the same hand and are made of similarmaterials. So we get a rich, strong sound with the focus on the timbral
accuracy. Even better than with the interconnect you can hear spaceshifts and dynamics changes are slightly better marked. However, theseare minor differences.
The bigger ones are related to a slightly different setting of the tonalbalance - in the speaker cable it is placed between midrange and bass.
It results in a lower, “heavier” sound. The treble is still open, it's – let me
repeat - the same paradigm as in the interconnect. Synthetic bass fromthe Japanese version of the Abroken Frame by Depeche Mode wasdeeper and richer, same as the bass guitar on Carol King Tapestry. The
double bass recorded during the concert of Seiichi Nakamura Quintet
was not, however, given additional weight and it was clear that theproducers wanted to convey the atmosphere of the concert, not tomake it sound like a studio recording. The HCS-25 let it happen.
So it was a lower and richer sound than with the interconnect. But alsoless transparent. Not that it actually was not transparent by itself,
because when compared with other cables from the same price range it
presented itself as very clear sounding. The point is, however, that theHCI-10 interconnect delivered a stronger upper midrange, so I paid lessattention to the bass range. The latter is with the HCS-25 speaker cablevery rich, full, it has a nice timbre, but it does not go very low – same as
the interconnect.

| HCI-10 + HCS-25
Each of these cables is very interesting on its own, sounds very goodand perfectly communicates emotions. Not only emotions though - theinterconnect most of all, but also the speaker cable, are transparent andthey also are able to tell us a lot about the recording itself. All you haveto do is to listen to them together to be sure that they were so "tuned",that their final listening test was done as a set, not individually. Because,
this is the case with well-thought-through products, that as a set they
offer something more than any of them introduced into an alien
environment.

Their sound is dominated by something that can be called a joyelement. It's an open, fresh sound with a rich midrange. It is open towhat is happening in the recording. There is no doubt, therefore, thatboth Nakano Mayo Piano Trio album and the beautiful Harmony of theSpheres album by HOTS, were recorded on an analog tape, and yet thenoise characteristic for this medium was manifested in a different way.
The album of these complete Japanese freaks released by
the Briphonic has much lower noise level and differently placed tonal
accents. In turn, the Harmony of the Spheres featured a higher noiselevel, and a warm, rich midrange.

It's a cable set that renders a wide spread sound. It is not only about
the soundstage, although it is very good, but about emotions, anddynamics. "Wide" used by musicians means more or less the same as"open, breathing." It's like an unrestricted playing but with a roundedsound attack so the sound is sweet, but with lots of details andsubtleties. The latter do not impose themselves on the listener, butrather hide behind larger events on the stage. Without them, however,the presentation would be significantly poorer. With them it isextremely rich.

Summary
Listening the 聖 Hijiri cable set from the basic price range will besatisfactory, above all, for those who value beautiful tone, "flow" ofsound, and nice dynamics. These are not the cables that accentuate theattack, so some rough, powerful music tracks might be a little polished,which is not what everyone needs. But if you listen to the genres I
mentioned before with some addition of classical music, which I
listened to a lot during this test, it will be a great, hard to match choice.
These are cables with a message, that is, their own sound, that do notpretend to be anything they are not - for example, they do not
artificially increase the volume of instruments and do not try to draw
our attention to the bass. They go in the direction of directcommunication through the extremely smooth midrange and its open
upper part. Here everything flows, shimmers and flickers, as if we weresuddenly on a sunny beach - alone with the sea basking in the sunlight.
For that they deserve the RED Fingerprint.

ANALOG SOURCES- Turntable: AVID HIFI Acutus
SP [Custom Version]- Cartridges: Miyajima
Laboratory KANSUI,
review HERE | MiyajimaLaboratory SHILABE,
review HERE| Miyajima
Laboratory ZERO (mono) |Denon DL-103SA, review HERE
- Phono stage: RCM Audio
Sensor Prelude IC,
review HERE
DIGITAL- Compact Disc
Player: Ancient Audio AIR Vedition, review HEREAMPLIFICATION- Line Preamplifier: Polaris III[Custom Version] + ACRegenerator, regular version
review (in Polish) HERE
- Power amplifier: Soulution
710- Integrated Amplifier: Leben
CS300XS Custom Version,
review HERELOUDSPEAKERS- Stand mount
Loudspeakers:Harbeth M40.1
Domestic, review HERE
- Stands forHarbeths: Acoustic ReviveCustom Series Loudspeaker
Stands- Real-Sound
Processor: SPEC RSP-101/GL

HEADPHONES- Integrated
Amplifier/Headphone
amplifier:Leben CS300XS
Custom Version, review HERE
- Headphones: HIFIMAN HE-6,review HERE | HIFIMAN HE-500,
review HERE | HIFIMAN HE-300,
review HERE | Sennheiser
HD800 | AKG K701, review (inPolish) HERE | Ultrasone
PROLine 2500, Beyerdynamic
DT-990 Pro, version 600 reviews (inPolish): HERE, HERE, HERE
- Headphone Stands: Klutz
Design CanCans (x 3), review (inPolish) HERE
- Headphone Cables: EntreqKonstantin 2010/Sennheiser
HD800/HIFIMAN HE-500,review HERECOMPUTER AUDIO- Portable Player: HIFIMAN
HM-801- USB Cables: Acoustic Revive
USB-1.0SP (1 m) | Acoustic
Revive USB-5.0PL (5 m),review HERE
- LAN Cables: Acoustic Revive
LAN-1.0 PA (kable ) | RLI-1(filtry), review HERE
- Router: Liksys WAG320N- NAS: Synology DS410j/8 TB

CABLES
System I- Interconnects: Acrolink
Mexcel 7N-DA6300,
review HERE | preamplifierpower amplifier: Acrolink 8NA2080III Evo, review HERE
- Loudspeaker Cables: TaraLabs Omega Onyx, review (inPolish) HERE
System II- Interconnects: Acoustic
Revive RCA-1.0PA | XLR-1.0PA II- Loudspeaker
Cables: Acoustic Revive SPC-PAPOWER
System I- Power Cables: Acrolink
Mexcel 7N-PC9300, all system,
review HERE
- Power Distributor: Acoustic
Revive RTP-4eu Ultimate,review HERE
- Power Line: power cable
Oyaide Tunami Nigo (6m); wall
sockets 3 x Furutech FT-SWS (R)
System II- Power Cables: Harmonix XDC350M2R Improved-Version,review (in Polish) HERE | Oyaide
GPX-R (x 4 ), review HERE
- Power Distributor: Oyaide
MTS-4e, review HERE

ANTIVIBRATIONACCESSORIES- Stolik: SolidBase IV
Custom, read HERE/allsystem- Anti-vibration
Platforms:Acoustic Revive
RAF-48H,review HERE/digital sources |Pro Audio Bono [CustomVersion]/headphone
amplifier/integrated
amplifier, review HERE |Acoustic Revive RST38H/loudspeakers underreview/stands forloudspeakers under review- Anti-vibration
Feets: Franc Audio
Accessories Ceramic Disc/CD Player/Ayon Polaris II
Power Supply /products
under review, review HERE |Finite Elemente CeraPuc/
products under review,
review HERE | Audio Replas
OPT-30HG-SC/PL HR Quartz,
review HERE
- Anti-vibration
accsories: Audio Replas
CNS-7000SZ/power cable,
review HERE
- Quartz Isolators: Acoustic
Revive RIQ-5010/CP-4
PURE PLEASURE- FM Radio: Tivoli Audio
Model One