Bound for Sound

Components of Merit - December 1995

Polyfusion 960 power Amplifier, $4950. They made me send it back. The audition period seemed all too short, being a meager four weeks long. Ordinarily, I like to spend more time with an amplifier due to the need to audition it with a number of different loudspeakers; the amp/loudspeaker interface being an extremely important one. But in this case, it didn't seem to matter. The 960 sailed through every load that I could throw at it, so the question of what speaker to use with this pro-style amp wasn't really an issue (though higher than 10 ohms is iffy). It's the power supply—it's the epitome of what a real power supply should be in a high-end, high-power, prestige amplifier. The transformer is an enormous 1.6kVA toroidal, and the power supply filtering is just a smidge short of 400,000 uf! ! ! If that last number doesn't jolt ya', contrast it to most power amps which have anywhere between 32,000 and 100,000 uf capacitance in their supplies, and those are considered muscle amps. This aspect of the design alone indicates how serious an amplifier the 960 really is. Add to that 12 MOSFET output devices per channel, and some of the sweetest circuitry this side of NASA, and... and... well, you have a power amplifier that breaks your heart when it has to go back.

But how does it sound? That's the true test anyway. Well, I wouldn't have been crying when the UPS man left if it didn't do music the way music was meant to be done. Its overall perspective is mid-hall and very neutral. It's dimensional and spacious, being able to textually sculpt an image with all the nuance and earthiness found in a live perfonnance. It out-does many, many tube amps in that regard. And while it's not a perfect amplifier (MOSFETs tend to have a little mist), it's certainly one of the most honest. And the way the power seems to flow out of its little silicon heart. I've heard Krell, Coda, and Levinson, but it's the Polyfusion 960 that serves as my definition of "authority" backed by brute force—still, it handles the details soooo well. The picture of an iron fist in a silk glove comes to mind. (full review to follow)

MGD

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