Fi: The Magazine of Music and Sound

Polyfusion Audio System: Good Parts, Great Sum - January 1998

by Art Pfeffer

An atypical but welcome assignment: to audition four Polyfusion Audio solid-state components, plus accessories, as an integrated system, with no substitutions. Like most audiophiles, reviewers normally mingle manufacturers to manufacture their preferred sound, but using a CD transport, DAC, preamp, and amp from a single studio has some compelling advantages besides uniform, and in this case elegant, appearance. These include reliable interfacing and consistent sonic character. For once, I was not trying to cancel out the conflicting idiosyncrasies of four unrelated components—or compensating for their defects. With the complete system, I would hear the music exactly as Polyfusion hears it. But would I like it? The audio chain is only as strong as its weakest link. System performance would be compromised if any component performed a bit less well than the others—a curious problem that I would not be able to resolve by hooking up my own reference DAC or preamp. No substitutions, remember?

A relatively recent home-audio brand name, Polyfusion has always specialized in solid-state circuitry. In the 1970s it manufactured music synthesizers; in the 1980s a graphic equalizer, Vocoders, feedback controllers, and other electronics; and, in the 1990s, high-end audio boards and components for industrial robotics. Its principals are audiophiles who eventually decided that Polyfusion could design and build better consumer audio components under its own name than under contract for others. Building on their competence in the exacting craft of circuit design, they adopted as their goals perfectionist engineering and construction—in their words, "zero returns"—combined with conservative cosmetics and state-of-the-art performance, blending, they hoped, the warmth and full body of tube electronics with the speed and reliability of transistors.

These are ambitious goals, yet as I unpacked the various components I was impressed at once by their compactness and fine finish, making me optimistic that Polyfusion's sonic aims would also be fulfilled. Setting up the system was such a breeze that I was finished before I had a chance to take any notes on the procedure. Signal and power connections were obvious, the low-profile signal-source units stacked neatly, and I encountered no imponderables or unexpected glitches except for an internal relay connector in the power amp that had become loose in transit and was easily reconnected. Manhandling the seventy-pound 960 power amp into position on an acrylic amp stand brought on the usual reviewer's ache-in-the-legs-and-back, but I did appreciate its comfortable rack handles.

The heart of the system is the trim 940 line-stage preamp, boasting two complete sets of balanced as well as coax outputs. Inputs are electronically switched. Internal options include a DAC module with digital inputs—to create an integrated preamp/DAC—and a phono module, though neither was supplied in my review sample.

The 920 CD transport combines a Philips CDM9-Pro drawer-loader with Polyfusion's own 20-bit, 8x-oversampling converter. The vacuum-fluorescent display is bright and legible. Functions are controlled smoothly by a row of front-panel pushbuttons or, of course, the remote, which controls only the 920 (though a system remote is in the works).

The 805 HDCD® DAC packs a lot of capability into its 2" profile. Inputs include one BNC; two optical, one optimized for plastic cable and the other for glass; one RCA coax; and one dedicated to Polyfusion's own (supplied) Digi-Link balanced cable for connecting the 920 to the 805. Digi-Link is not simply cable but an integrated system with transmitter and receiver (in the transport and DAC) and special connectors. I used Digi-Link exclusively in the system, and its refined sonic characteristics are incorporated into my description of the system as a whole, as are those of Polyfusion's own AC line cords, which I also used exclusively. (Discovery Signature interconnecting cables and Acarian Alon V speakers and speaker cables were the only non-Polyfusion components in the system.)

The heavyweight but cool-running 960 stereo power amp is rated at 200 DC-coupled watts per channel into eight ohms, 400 into four. Aside from those hefty handles and the illuminated Polyfusion logo, the main feature of its faceplate is two bright LCD bargraph power meters, which can be switched off. Next to these are indicators, normally invisible, for high temperature, muting, clipping, and DC fault. Protective and diagnostic circuits are obviously a Polyfusion priority. Muting can be engaged manually, allowing upstream cables to be unplugged or changed without turning the amp off. (Hearty cheer from reviewer!) Inputs are switch-selectable balanced and RCA. Each channel has its own internal power supply with a gigantic 188,000 mF of storage capacity. Even the weighty toroidal power transformer has separate secondary windings for each channel.

The 960 demands several hours of warm-up to attain its finest sound, which mellows and expands a bit more still if the amp is left on permanently. This a solid-state Class AB1 job can do without overly inflating your electric bill. The only problem is power outages (and attendant "inages" with the power switch still on), which in my area are not rare and which the amp dislikes to the tune of one channel refusing to light up afterwards until switched off and on. Nevertheless, I recommend suspending judgment about this system's sound until it has been powered on for a couple of days at least.

The digital units and preamp are powered by a remote line-operated DC supply, the rugged 335, one of which normally comes with each unit. But one 335 can supply the required ±35VDC to all three units simultaneously without stress. Without the 335, the list price of each component is reduced by $350. I was given two 335's and listened mainly with the DAC and transport plugged into one of them and the 940 preamp into the other. I also tried three-on-one and heard—well, possibly a minute reduction in dynamic range but nothing I would swear to. Users can safely economize with a single 335. My only criticism is the awkward "in-line" placement of the power-cord connection on the front with the switch and pilot light rather than with the three output sockets on the rear. Polyfusion promises to put all the connections on the rear in its next version.

The faceplates of all components except the 335 power supply sport a central window with a big, illuminated logo that serves as a power-on indicator. I like this unusual effect, but some visitors found all those lights distracting. In addition, the units all come in a choice of standard black, silver, or a highly sensuous gold finish. Finally, I can report that all the components were easy to use (with a few minor reservations) and performed with complete reliability and no quirks over a period of several months. As a peek or two inside the cases confirms, this is beautifully built audio gear.

Let me dispose of those few ergonomic criticisms right now. All the units are pleasing to the eye, but the 920 transport's tightly-packed panel buttons are not as easy to see or use as I would like. And the remote, though comfortable and dependable, will not earn high praise, its many buttons being very small, inadequately differentiated in size and shape according to function, and rather dimly marked. After many weeks, I still had to turn on the lights and scrutinize the panel carefully to find the right button. Printed legends on the remote as well as on all the front panels should be far more legible. The remote won't open the CD drawer, arguably for safety. But in compensation the transport features Favorite Track Selection, which cleverly memorizes your favorite tracks on each CD. Finally, the 940's balance and volume knobs need white index marks.

Onward to the sound. In my experience, free-standing power supplies don't automatically improve sonic performance; some exist just to sell two boxes instead of one. But Polyfusion's implementation, with every signal source powered externally, produces just about the quietest, suavest, most grain-free sonic backgrounds I've (not) heard. CDs played this way gloriously liberate the textures and dynamics of the music from audible interference. The sultry voices of Chesky's female singers in its Taste of Chesky CD sampler—Rebecca Pidgeon, Ana Caram, Sara K.—crystallize in space, surrounded at a distance by their backup ensembles or synthesizer effects, all freed from the subliminal sonic hash that can clump them together in other playback circumstances. Likewise, though Mercury's vibrant CD of Rodrigo guitar concertos [434369-2] is an analog transfer, its tape hiss is not compounded by system noise and recedes into the background. The auditorium's slap-back echo, an effect often obscured by noise, stands out plainly, while finger and string sounds are revealed with quite stunning clarity. And this freedom from noise is as impressive at high volume as at low. Once you get used to this degree of quiet, it's not easy to return to the levels of system noise and veiling traditionally taken for granted.

The Polyfusion system goes a long way toward meeting its design goal of mating the finesse and clarity of solid-state with the warmth and full body of tubes. To sum it up in one word: crisp. Avoiding clinical coolness, harshness, and artificially soft edges, it blends unusual precision with unusual power and mid-bass body in some of the most coherent and natural musical reproduction I've encountered. Though my power-mad Alon V speakers reduce some amps to wimpiness, this is hardly the case with the 960. Organ pedals and the biggest heavy brass tones of Reference's Pomp and Pipes [RR-58, HDCD] peal expansively but are also firmly focused in a huge, airy acoustic. Never did the system scatter harmonics or project forward high-pitched transients like cymbals and bells. And Polyfusion does massed strings (which is to say, complex harmonics) with great honesty and almost no grain or gray coloration. Example: Sony's recent Haydn symphony disc [MHK62979] with George Szell, where I marveled at the resiny richness of the violins in track 3. Likewise the focused, vibrant strings in Classic CD's Nutcracker Suite [LDSCD-6065, 2 CDs] and in Barber's Adagio in Stokowski Landmarks [EMI CDM7-65614].

On the other end of the scale are the near-perfect spatial imaging and wispy detail of the delicate guitar and synthesizer tracery opening Badi Assad's "Ica" [Chesky JD-137]. Well-engineered ensemble recordings display many layers of depth, highly precise lateral localization, and a stage as ample and wide as most but perhaps not extending quite as far beyond the outer edges of the speakers as the best I've heard. As in the finest systems, the Polyfusion allows the recording to decide where to place the stage front. In Mercury's Saint-Saens Organ Symphony [432719-2] this is right up front; in La Fiesta Mexicana with Frederick Fennell on Kosei [KOCD-2814], it's quite a way back.

The acoustic haze I often hear in DDD recordings is minimized by Polyfusion's playback units. A number of DG CDs that have irked me with their multi-miked spatial and tonal congestion are happily redeemed, at least made more than tolerable, by the 920/805 combo; one such is Mendelssohn Overtures [423104-2], whose orchestral stage develops some depth and whose formerly white, grainy violins gain some natural timbre and dimension. I am always favorably disposed toward any equipment that helps the many average recordings in my collection to sound their best, not by concealing their distortions but by refusing to add its own.

Though the Polyfusion system is perhaps less likely to be used in a home theater than for music-only audio, I set up my own video around it, using a Lexicon DC-1 decoder/switcher as interface between video sources and preamp. The result was exceptionally clear, spacious, and satisfying movie sound. The Polyfusion preamp and amp make the most of the quiet digital background to present voices and ambient effects with realistic tonal balance (very little chestiness in male voices), fine resolution of detail, and fascinating spatial localizations. Hearing the clean steel clank and jangle of swords, muskets, and cavalry gear in Gettysburg—not to mention the gut-thumping artillery and the frightening crash of massed rifles—I felt I was in the middle of the battlefield. The Saturn V liftoff in Apollo 13, with its floor -flapping lows and ear shattering rocketry, reduces some amps to sonic shards. None of that with the Polyfusion, which powers the astronauts into orbit in sweeping majesty and in one piece.

With a list price totaling above $14,000, the Polyfusion system is not cheap but to my mind is well worth its price, especially when taking into account that all you need do is unpack it, stack it, and hook it up, knowing all the pieces will work together flawlessly. Polyfusion here offers very serious high-end performance, plus heartening reliability.

Manufacturer
Polyfusion Audio
30 Ward Road
Lancaster, NY 14086
Tel: 716-681-3040
Fax: 716-681-2763
Designers
Alan Pearce, Ron Folkman

Specifications

920 CD Transport
Dimensions 19" x 13" x 3", weight 7 lb. 12 oz.
Serial no:1021
Warranty: Limited 3 years on parts and labor, all units
Price:$2,900

805 D/A Converter,
19" x 13" x 2 1/8", weight 5 lb. 10 oz.
Serial no:1005
Price: $3,250

940 Stereo Preamplifier19" x 13" x 3", weight 7 lb. 6 oz.
Serial no:1016
Price: $3,250

960 Stereo Power Amplifier
Dimensions 19" x 22" x 8", weight 70 lb.
Serial no:1010
Price: $4,950

Associated Equipment
Acarian Alon V Mk II speakers, Acarian Black Orpheus and Discovery Signature speaker cables, Discovery Signature interconnecting cables, 25', Lexicon DC-1 A/V decoder/switcher, Pioneer DVL-700 laser/DVD player, Sims Navcom iso-feet

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