Exposure - a new budget offering.

Just seen the 1010 range. Looks like they've entered the budget arena.

They've been strangely quiet of late. If it's anything like the 2010 range it should be cracking.

Had a quick look at the innards of both;

The CD player is simplicity itself with optical digital out only though there seems to be a spare board location for what is probably a Coax out. I can only assume that it may be for the american market. A small torroid transformer feeds a small bank of capacitors to take care of power supply. No additional supply regulation seems to be used. There are no fancy parts other than what looks like a few vishay's but metal film resistors are used. It all looks neat and tidy. I am not sure what DAC this unit uses (difficult to see from the pictures).

The amplifier has an equally simple design with all parts located on a good quality board with wide tracks. A small 120VA torroidal transformer is feeding a bank of multiple, small electrolytics.  No 'boutique' parts are visible as far as I can see but a good quality Alps (blue) motorized potentiometer (volume control) is used and inputs are relay switched. There are no dedicated heat sinks, an obvious indication of cost saving and the output transistors look reverse mounted,  using the amplifier bottom plate as sinking. Not an ideal arrangement but I can't see that being a problem with the power rated and Exposure have, as far as I know not have had reliability problems. - Talking of power, the amplifier is rated at 50w/ch. It is normally good practice to use a transformer with a VA  of 2.5 times (or more)  of the output wattage. The one used here only just about meets that at 120VA. Assuming the supply caps, 6 per channel, are 2200uf each (I can't make the rating out but Exposure have traditionally not skimped on that part of their previous designs) this should be enough to somewhat compensate for the small'ish torroid and it is a cheaper way of ensuring an adequate power supply than using a larger and more costly transformer. - If they are half the size, 1100uf, the amplifier would probably still meet spec but may struggle a little with sustained high power musical demand at higher volume. To put that into perspective though, some lower cost '100w/ch x7' AV receivers often skimper there too with total capacity uf ratings not reaching 5 figures per channel.

Both components look good and have the typical Exposure design philosophy of 'less is more'. I would expect them to sound in the manner of their other designs just a little smaller?

I think they are available at around £800 as a pair which, whilst not cheap seems reasonable for something well built and not mass market produced.

Whether buying a new cd player still makes sense these days is perhaps open to debate but the two would look nice on a rack and probably evoke more 'pride of ownership' than some other, far eastern, products..

It may be worth noting that the likes of Cambridge Audio have superb products with more facilities in that price range too and then there are the likes of Marantz, Denon, Rega ... certainly no lack of choice.

Just my 2p's

Happy Sunday everyone!!!!!!!!!

regards

Great stuff drummerman - thanks for the quick assessment!

Exposures reply;

thanks for the link. Your assessment is basically correct. The amp does have an aluminium heatsink block bolted to the inside of the case. The power supply caps are 1000uF each but this arrangment works well in the 1010. There are no Vishays but metal films are used in critical postions

If you have any questions please let me know

regards

CD innards

Amp innards  (Looks like an Alps Blue RK27 motorised potentiometer.)

Does anyone know whether they'll phase out the 20 series?

HiFI World review can be found here:

-http://www.exposurehifi.com/pdf/HFW_Apr12%20Exposure%201010.pdf

Not bad for more info.