HE 2006

Neat Exposures

Jason Victor Serinus  |  Jun 3, 2006

My final visit of the Show's first public day was to Jay Rein's Bluebird Music, Ltd. room. Tucked into a small niche in a space otherwise dominated by Chord electronics and Neat loudspeakers (which Jay considers an ideal match for Chord) sat an unobtrusive Exposure system consisting of the Exposure 2010S CD player and integrated amp ($1250 each) connected to diminutive NEAT Acoustics Motive 2 loudspeakers ($1995/pair) by entry-level Kubala-Sosna speaker cables. Rein and CA dealer Michael Silver of Audio High then proceeded to blow my mind with budget magic. As was the case with the new, even lower-priced Denon system I described yesterday, the system's evenly balanced, full-range sound blew me away. Now I understand why Stereophile has heaped praise on Exposure Electronics. I'd love to hear this stuff powered by after-market power cables and a power conditioner of some sort. Stuff that sounds this good can only sound better when given the opportunity to demonstrate its full potential.

COMMENTS
Paul Bolin's picture
Submitted by Paul Bolin (not verified) on June 6, 2006 - 12:27pm

Good on ya, Jason! This system sounded simply wonderful. And people think I only like mega-size, mega-bucks equipment.

John Florance's picture
Submitted by John Florance (not verified) on June 3, 2006 - 3:25pm

Agreed! I couldn't believe what I was hearing from such a small and inexpensive system. A must hear at the show.

Fred's picture
Submitted by Fred (not verified) on June 3, 2006 - 4:59pm

On the other hand, exotic cables and power conditioners often ruin the sound of equipment that was developed without them. This is especially true of British kit like Exposure and Neat which specialize in PRAT, not soundstaging et. al.

Jason Victor Serinus's picture
Submitted by Jason Victor Serinus (not verified) on June 4, 2006 - 12:44pm

Hi Leonya. I'm not sure what happened to my comments on the Denon system -- these bleary Sunday morning eyes cannot find them - but Wes Phillips' photos and comments can be found deeper into this show report. Just click on a later page and do a search for Denon.

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