![]() The Dayens spruces duller loudspeakers with a twinkle-of-eye sparkle but it sings from its throat. ![]() Looking in the other (price) direction, the 2010s2 aces the excellent Dayens Ampino (~AU$650) by exposing the blood and guts of music as well as greater music body. Think Naim PRaT-power meeting Rega crunch and delicacy a middle way. In the context of Asian powerhouse, the Exposure more obviously surrenders its (polite) British heritage. Considerably more dollars down (on the Audio-gd) returns considerably more power and even tighter bass. Of course, these descriptors are meaningless in a vacuum.Ĭompared to the Audio-gd C39-MK3/C10-SE pre-power behemoth (~AU$2500), the Exposure is as equally insistent with pace and timing but doesn’t work with as much soundstage depth. Less obvious motifs move forward in the mix, do their 4-4 dance, and then fade back into the background. Know that this integrated isn’t heavy handed with the delicate stuff. When tackling the rhythmic jolts of Robert Hood’s Omega:Alive, the Exposure’s resolve means a bass drum that’s toned and never flabby fast and propulsive we witness a dystopian techno world through the windows of a bullit train. Strands of instrumental hair are combed clean (of each other) for what is consistently a punchy and exciting performance with a wide range of contemporary music. The spritely “Sugar On My Tongue” is conveyed with intimacy, expressive dynamics and excellent textural detail. Conversely, it isn’t a bright or overly studious, detail-obssessed box – its treble possesses a humidity that renders it an excellent choice for brighter loudspeakers. You wouldn’t describe the Exposure as lifeless or flat. On Talking Heads’ early four-piece new wave naiveté, the transparency of Harrisson/Frantz/Weymouth/Byrne interplay is impressive, particularly at the price point. ![]() Despite its confidence with higher SPLs, there was no hint of distortion, just an unerring commitment to a ‘clean’ sound with strong emphasis on separation. Here we have a strikingly powerful integrated – little beyond 10pm on the volume was required to take even the Usher S-520 above 100db. This is not your Father’s integrated amplifier.Ī run through Talking Head’s career-summarising Sand In The Vaseline allows the Exposure to really stretch its legs with versatility and dexterity. This gives it a sonic signature that runs a similar race to REDGUM’s Sonofa’GUM: an (initially) unusual sound – one that thinks different – one that polishes midrange windows. It’s essentially a power amp with volume pot attenuation. Rounding out the feature set is a perfectly pleasant remote control which doubles up on its dealing with the matching 2010s2 CD player.Ī passive pre-stage is what separates the 2010s2 from its rivals. It’s just Exposure’s way of making bi-wiring easier. Don’t assume that two sets of terminals means two speaker ‘zones’ – it doesn’t. The speaker terminals on the rear of the amplifier run flush with the body and only accept banana plugs – bare wire and spades are out. Turntable users can opt for a slot-in phono stage card (89GBP) on the “Aux 1” input. The six rear inputs are user-selectable from a hefty solenoid knob ’round front – an upgrade from the mechanical source selection switch of the 2010s. Inside, a substantial toroidal transformer is the engine room fuelling the 75 watt output of each channel. The in-house upgrade path means buying only one new box – a 2010s2 power amp – and hooking it up to the integrated’s pre-outs. In the context of its own range, this 2010s2 is both integrated and pre-amp housed in a very solid aluminium chassis. In a bid to parmesan shave pounds and pence from the retail price, the recently announced 1010 integrated will be made in Malaysia and then QC-d in the UK. The 20 Exposure ranges are hand-built at their factory in Portslade – a grim annexe of Brighton. This has an upside: you are not paying so much for the brand as you are for product performance. Having been around since 1974, Exposure have been working the margins of affordable hifi for many years but have struggled to truly permeate mainstream hifi’s collective consciousness to the level of Naim, Rega or Musical Fidelity. I landed the 2010s2 for AU$1300, which would’ve been AU$300 cheaper still had a bungle in the UK RRP declaration not pushed the item’s value a shade over the Australian thousand dollar import duty ceiling. With no reply from the Exposure mothership forthcoming, I spied a UK-direct purchase as the most expedient way to get my hands on the latest iteration of the 2010s, now in v2 status (750GBP).
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