Finite Elemente

Terry,

Many thanks for the opportunity to audition the Exposure 3010 S2 integrated amp at our club and I am pleased to report our findings.

As an economy priced 2x 110w integrated stereo amplifier this unit offers excellent style, features and performance for its modest price.

It has a simple but well finished front panel and casework, with smooth and responsive attenuator and input switching. Both can be controlled remotely and their settings are easily visible from the listening position by the use of bright blue LEDs. The controls are very smooth and absolutely silent in operation.

The rear panel is well laid out and easily accessible with robust, good quality connectors for two pairs of speaker connections, 2 pairs of buffered preamp outputs, one pair of tape outputs and six pairs of line inputs one of which can be a phono input with the purchase of an optional internal phono stage.  Moving coil and moving magnet phono stages are available but only one can be installed at a time. Installation is simple and can be easily retrofitted or changed.

After full run-in the sound settled to be clean, detailed and dynamic and the amplifier could drive moderately sensitive speakers of around 8 ohms to very high volumes with very good sound. For high volumes from speakers of lower impedance and lower sensitivity the matching stereo power amp or mono blocks from the same product line could be a good choice. Under all conditions with unobstructed ventilation the case remained barely warm. The high output and low power dissipation is very good performance for an amplifier at this price point especially considering the number and quality of the extra features included.

The line level amplifier and also the moving coil phono stage as installed in the test unit, were exemplary in all situations and showed signs of being derived from other up-market models in their product line. Hum and noise levels were below audible threshold and there were no switching clicks or other annoying artifacts. With my .1 millivolt  moving coil cartridges there was a low level of background hiss only audible with the pickup off the disk. Cartridges with output levels of .3 to .5 mv or more would completely overcome that noise level.

Long term listening to a wide range of music from analogue and digital sources was relaxing and enjoyable and although you could invest considerably more for a higher degree of inner detail and micro dynamics  the overall features and performance of this model make it a genuine Hi-Fi bargain.

Kind regards,

Brian "Auckland"