Integrated Amp Reviews

Exposure XV integrated amplifier Review System

Sidebar 1: Review System

The Exposure XV saw time driving three pairs of loudspeakers in my listening room: the Paradigm Compact Monitor, Rogers LS2a/2, and the usual Hales System Two Signatures. Loudspeaker cable was a 20' bi-wired pair of Exposure cables terminated with banana plugs on both ends. Source components included a heavily modified Well-Tempered Turntable fitted with an AudioQuest AQ7000 cartridge, connected via Expressive Technologies IC-2 or AudioQuest Diamond. The digital front end included a Theta Data, Museatex CD-Deck, and Proceed PDT 3 transports driving a Mark Levinson No.30 or Meitner IDAT digital processor. In accordance with Exposure's request, the XV was not plugged into the Tice Power Block and Titan.

Reference components on hand that established a benchmark level of performance included the Audio Research LS2B preamp, VTL 225W Deluxe monoblock tubed power amplifiers, and a Mark Levinson No.23.5 solid-state power amplifier. The reference phono stage was a Vendetta SCP2B. Reference loudspeaker cables were bi-wired runs of AudioQuest Sterling/Midnight (8') or AudioQuest Dragon/Clear (3'). Taken together, the ancillary components cost more than ten times the XV's price.—Robert Harley

COMPANY INFO
Exposure Electronic
US distributor: Fidelis Music System
460 Amherst Street (Route 101A)
Nashua, NH 03063
(603) 880-4434
www.fidelisav.com
ARTICLE CONTENTS

COMMENTS
Ortofan's picture
Submitted by Ortofan on July 12, 2019 - 11:30am

... heat sink for the output transistors, this is it.
Can't believe the designer thought that a simple L-bracket attached to the rear panel was sufficient.

If the author was under the impression that the Exposure's "overall build and parts qualities are excellent" and "the unit is nicely finished", he should have examined a Pioneer Elite A-71, which was a contemporary of the XV and sold for about the same price:
http://www.thevintageknob.org/pioneer-A-71.html

johnnythunder's picture
Submitted by johnnythunder on July 13, 2019 - 7:33pm

there was something very special and individual about this Exposure amp and it's contemporaries like the Naim Nait Creek's 4040 and Audiolab's 8000A. In some ways the NAD 3020 is the original of these UK designed integrateds, all quirky and punching way above their weight musically and sonically even if they were not luxury products per se. They all clarified details and penetrated into the music in a very different way than most audio products of their time.

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