When choosing a component for a state-of-the-art music system, regardless of what it may be, one must always compromise. With every piece of equipment there are always inherent limitations and the Polymer Logic offers the least amount of compromises as a sound transducer of any loudspeaker system in the world today.

The Polymer Logic is founded upon fanatical dedication to use only the best available materials and technologies combined with sophisticated manufacturing processes. It is designed for a lifetime of auditory pleasure and is unlikely to be surpassed by competing designs for many years to come.

…starts with the midrange. Because the human ear has evolved to perceive even the slightest sound aberrations in the midrange, a loudspeaker must reproduce these frequencies with perfect precision to achieve sound that can “fool” the brain/ear interface into believing that it is listening to a live performance - and the Polymer Logic does this with astonishing accuracy. No matter how well engineered, all loudspeakers on the market today fail in this parameter as they are manufactured from conventional cone materials that inevitably suffer from flexing, bending, and breakup at various midrange frequencies. Therefore these transducers cannot reproduce the exact excitation of the voice-coil and the electromagnetic system that is moving the cone. In addition, the low stiffness and therefore low sound velocity through these materials causes phase shift between the various mechanical parts that make up the transducer leading to further non-linearity and loss of realism from the sound system.

What led to the development of the Polymer Logic was the fascination with the idea of what would happen if a theoretically perfect material is implemented in a perfectly executed design combining only the best mechanical, acoustic, and electronic components at the limits of current understanding in loudspeaker engineering. That perfect material is diamond – a material that has nearly infinite stiffness, vanishing density, and extraordinary stiffness-to-mass ratio. It is a material that does not bend or flex and would allow the cone to behave like a perfect piston responding instantaneously to information supplied by the electro-magnetic system.

It goes without saying that creating a midrange cone made from a single piece of pure diamond is an extraordinarily complex process and cannot be compared to diamond tweeters now appearing in some flagship designs. Unlike stamped polypropylene, carbon fiber, or aluminum cones which are produced in hundreds of pieces per minute and cost only pennies to make, the diamond cone is created one at a time and spends over a week in a plasma reactor. Due to a large surface area, unlike the diamond tweeter membrane, the midrange cone often cracks during the manufacturing process and has to be made again. This also adds considerably to the manufacturing time and cost. On average, it takes approximately 6 weeks to manufacture a pair of diamond midrange drivers used in the Polymer Logic.

If you are looking for the best sound reproduction you owe it to yourself to hear the Polymer Logic with the diamond midrange driver. Nearly all electronic and mechanical artifacts are gone and music is presented effortlessly in three-dimensional relief. The reaction from listeners, even experienced audiophiles who already own the best systems, is that of shock at the realization that an entirely new level of sound reproduction is possible.

The tweeter selected for the Polymer Logic is the French Supravox TG1. In extensive listening tests against well known flagship tweeters it outperformed the Dynaudio Esotar, Scan Speak Revelator, Seas Crescendo, Focal Audiom, and several state-of-the-art ribbon tweeters. The TG1 is a special design that uses a titanium dome covered in a pure layer of solid gold and has very interesting horizontal and vertical dispersion characteristics. The TG1 has amazing detail retrieval that is possible only from the best titanium domes but with softness, smoothness, and silkiness that outperforms the best soft dome designs. Particularly impressive is the sense of spaciousness, ambiance, and layers of air – very much like the way high frequencies sound in a live performance. We believe that the Supravox TG1 is quite possibly the best high frequency transducer in the world and couples seamlessly to the pure diamond cone midrange.

For a seamless blend with the ultra-stiff and accurate diamond midrange the design demanded a very sophisticated driver for low frequency reproduction. In fact only one driver could meet the required parameters, a very exotic vapor deposited titanium 7 inch woofer. Fully hand made in Italy in small batches, this driver currently features the stiffest and lightest cone available in a 7 inch woofer making it the best transducer in the world for mid-bass applications. The woofer also features the best available magnetic system and linear excursion that allows it to have more clean output then many 10 inch woofers. More then a dozen state of the art drivers were evaluated for the Polymer Logic and no other driver could meet the challenge of keeping up with the extraordinary realism of the diamond midrange.

Inductors

Inductors and their implementation in crossover networks are rarely discussed in the high-end audio industry. The vast majority of high-end loudspeakers employ average quality air core inductors paying little attention to material quality and performance characteristics. What good is it to invest in a high performance loudspeaker cable when the delicate audio signal has to travel through hundreds of feet of wire in the inductor coil? Because a system is usually only as good as its weakest link, loudspeakers are permanently degraded by the quality of the coil. This is why all inductors used in the Polymer Logic are wound with 6N (99.9999% pure) laboratory grade copper that is gently annealed. In extensive listening tests the purity of the material played a significantly bigger role in sound reproduction then the type of material being used. For example, inductors wound with high-purity laboratory grade copper sound better then inductors wound with standard purity silver. Special attention is also given to the crystal structure of the material. The same level of attention goes into the inductor wiring as into costly state-of-the-art loudspeaker cables.

Capacitors

Due to their exceptional sonic and measured performance, Teflon Film and Tin Foil capacitors are used throughout the critical crossover circuitry. These capacitors are extremely costly; however, their presence in the circuitry makes a significant impact on sound quality by contributing to a silent “black” background and liquidity. The cost of these capacitors is approximately 50 – 100 times higher then conventional polypropelyne film types used in many flagship speaker systems. Only capacitors that are tested for the best signal-to-noise ratio and lowest microphonics are used in the circuitry.

Spontaneous acceleration – ultra high power magnetic systems

While low frequency drivers require a delicate balance of magnetic force for proper system Qts and other low frequency parameters, midrange and high-frequency drivers benefit from more powerful magnets. The magnets have been carefully modified to deliver extraordinary force making the cone “invisible” to the motor. The magnets are so powerful that they require special handling because they can cause injury. The perfect piston behavior of the drivers combined with instantaneous acceleration results in unparalleled musical realism.

Maximum conductivity on all signal paths

Traditional loudspeaker cabinets simply do not provide the rigidity and absorptive mass necessary for controlling the massive resonances that form inside from the energy of the moving drivers. This leads to masking of micro detail, muddiness, and poor transient performance. Therefore, enormous resources were invested into the development and optimization of the Polymer Logic cabinet. The walls are a multi-layer construction of CNC-machined HDF panels and special low resilience polymer. The polymer sheets have a special cellular construction that deforms when loaded and has exceptional shock absorption. The multi-layer construction uses different materials for the bass driver enclosure and the midrange enclosure, each optimized for its application after extensive measuring and listening tests. Internally the enclosure is further damped with viscoelastic dampening sheets with lead fillers on all surfaces and then another layer of Deflex panels is applied in various locations to help further control resonances and simultaneously standing waves inside the cabinet. Special attention was also given to the use of various types of adhesives to achieve the best sonic and measured performance. The cabinet is then hand coated in multiple coats of automotive paint and polished to a perfect deep mirror Steinway piano lacquer. The result is a product with timeless aesthetic beauty and a completely inert enclosure that eliminates nearly all possible colorations.

The Polymer Logic is capable of extraordinary resolution and for this reason every component down to the choice of the screws used to fasten the drivers make an audible difference on sonic performance. Over a dozen solders were evaluated for the Polymer Logic and only one had was completely sonically “invisible” and added no sonic signature of its own. All connections are made using Cardas solder with a proprietary SN62 blend (tin, lead, silver, and copper) and a low melting point. The use of this solder produces the best performance characteristics and an audible improvement without glare or brightness that was associated with other silver bearing solders or the micro-detail masking from traditional commercial solders.

The posts used for the speaker cable connection make a significant impact on sound quality, usually leading to degradation. The signal must always travel over a piece of metal roughly several centimeters in length and in general the quality and design of this metal is poor. The vast majority of loudspeakers utilize brass posts that are then gold plated. Brass is an extremely low grade metal for high-end loudspeaker applications and causes various distortions. A step up from these conventional binding posts are posts manufactured by WBT or Cardas, however, the large mass of metal used in these posts introduces phase errors and smearing due to skin effect - where high frequency signals traveling on the surface of the conductor are conveyed faster than low frequency signals traveling at varying depths and speeds within the metal itself.

The only post that was sonically “invisible” is the Eichmann CablePod which is carefully machined from the best materials with careful attention given to optimizing the overall metal content. Click here to download the CablePod technical paper.

The crossover at the heart of the Polymer Logic is a complex network with an extremely linear phase response, minimal inter-driver frequency overlap, and exhibits only minimal rotation and group delay throughout its bandwidth. Polymer Audio Technologies uses a proprietary technology that allows a very steep roll off without the problems generally associated with high-order parallel networks such as ringing, veiling, lack of clarity, and poor imaging. The added benefit is that drivers can be crossed over very low allowing the Polymer Logic to operate the diamond midrange safely over the widest possible bandwidth, resulting in more realism in the midrange then from a competing design like the Marten Design Coltrane Supreme ($250,000/pr). As a result of this cross-over technology, a higher percentage of reproduced sound is driven by a diamond cone material than any other loudspeaker on the planet, regardless of cost.

In general, cross-over design is poorly understood even by many established loudspeaker companies. This is why there is rarely any discussion of cross-over technology beyond the order of the filter, a very unfortunate state of affairs in the industry. A loudspeaker cannot be a truly world class design simply by having a high quality cabinet and a collection of exotic drivers. At Polymer Audio Technologies, we passionately believe that the cross-over network is the very heart of a loudspeaker, a component that separates a mere high-end performance from a truly captivating auditory experience.

Since over 95% of the loudspeaker industry uses traditional text-book networks, they are always a trade-off between phase linearity, constant acoustic power, control of vertical or horizontal lobing, and attenuation of driver output. When one variable is optimized it leads to degraded performance in another. Therefore, the vast majority of loudspeakers are a compromise in one area or another.

The Polymer Logic crossover is the result of sophisticated computer modeling and several years of optimization. The result is exceptional measured performance and extraordinary synergy between the drivers.

Due to the use of massive inductors with high-gauge wire and the use of extremely powerful magnets on the drivers, magnetic interference becomes a major concern. The design is faced with the engineering challenge that as the parts quality is increased so is the potential for signal anomalies that result from powerful magnetic fields generated by these components. Rather than tackling this problem by making the enclosure impractically large, we have set out to carefully optimize components geometries and component layout. The result is that even though extremely powerful magnetic fields are being generated inside the cabinet, they do not create unwanted signal aberrations regardless of playback volume.